Mochas and Tsunderes
by homubot
Summary: Nico Yazawa works in a café. A certain red haired girl comes in to order a mocha. One encounter was all it took for Nico to take an interest in her. [Coffee Shop AU] [NicoMaki-centric]
1. Just Like Any Other Day

A rainy day. It was a rainy and an incredibly boring day for the one and only Nico Yazawa. Why? It was time for work. Rainy days meant more people. More people meant more tips, but also more work. Working at a café wasn't exactly the job that Nico preferred, but it was better than nothing, right? They did offer a fairly decent wage for her and Nico had no other choice but to accept the position, there were no other jobs better than this.

Living independently did mean that she would have to get a job for living expenses and the rent for her small apartment. At least she didn't have to pay for college tuitions, she was grateful for her talent in fashion design that had earned her a precious scholarship. Her family wasn't exactly rich and they certainly wouldn't have been able to pay for her selected course at that luxurious university.

She sighed away as she entered the small changing room of her workplace. Locating her locker that was at the left corner, she took out her uniform and equipped the small name pin onto her shirt. Her eye caught the mirror in the locker and she pensively looked into it. During her deep thoughts, the voice of a man –it was the supervisor– boomed behind her. She responds back in a sweet voice. The supervisor leaves, expecting Nico to come out from the room within a few minutes. Still looking at the mirror, she made a pose and whispered, "Nico nico ni!" not at all enthusiastic for the day ahead of her.

Rubbing her hands off her slightly big apron, she tightened her pigtails and got ready for work. To be honest, Nico didn't mind working behind the counter; it was certainly better than the other jobs she was offered before. She would much rather work at a coffee shop than do odd jobs around the neighbourhood.

With dim lights and a slightly dark interior, the shop had a somewhat calm atmosphere. The shop also smelled of coffee. When she had first worked here, Nico thought it was a pleasant smell, but now after working for a grueling three months, she was absolutely turned off by the nasty odour of coffee everywhere.

It was exactly 4:00 PM on the dot and that was when Nico began her shift. The shop was filled with customers, old and new. Not too long after the beginning of her shift, a long queue seemed to form. How could only three people serve _that_ many people? Things like these made Nico question what the boss was thinking when he had decided to only have so few people behind the counter. It was going to be a long day.

She spotted Honoka, one of her coworkers and college friends. Although they were friends, Nico sometimes wanted to avoid the brunette. She was like a child. In short, Honoka often annoyed Nico.

The first time they had met, Honoka was a first year and she was lost in the college campus. Nico was sitting on a bench eating lunch and she had felt sorry for Honoka. She had been walking around in circles for a while. Feeling pity for the girl, she had directed her to where she wanted to go and that was when Nico befriended Honoka.

"Nico-chan!" a brunette waved to Nico.

Upon hearing her overly enthusiastic voice, she knew that today was a day where she did not want to talk to Honoka.

"Hey."

Thankfully, Honoka spared her with small talk and didn't go into topics that she would have rambled on and on about.

The chiming of the door was almost constant; every time a new customer would come in, it would chime and this annoyed Nico to no end. She merely tolerated it and continued to serve the people in front of her with a smile.

When the wave of customers slowly left one by one, Nico gave a sigh of relief and sat on a stool. The shop became quiet once again, with only just a few customers sitting in booths. She wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and slumped onto the stool, giving herself a well-deserved break. It wouldn't be busy until later, anyway.

Nico zoned out and stared out a window until she heard the sound of a chime coming from her left. Sliding off the stool, she stood in behind the counter and gave off her best smile to the new customer. It was a red haired girl who seemed to be busy staring at the list of drinks on the side of the wall. Upon looking at the new customer, she thought to herself that maybe this girl was older than her, she seemed to exude an air of maturity around her. Nico was probably safe to assume that said girl was currently attending university. After all, this shop is near the college campus.

It wasn't until a few minutes later until the new red haired customer approached Nico behind the counter to order her drink.

"Just a double, tall mocha, please," the customer said flatly.

Nico pressed a few buttons on the touch-screen machine, beeps and boops corresponded to her commands. She looked back to the customer, smiling yet again, "That'll be 290 yen, thank you!"

"For here or on the go, miss?"

"On the go."

"Name?" Nico asked in a sweet voice.

"Maki."

The girl called Maki opened up her purse and fumbled around for the amount needed. Once she found the right amount, she handed it over to Nico, who was still wearing her fake smile. Maki seemed to be uninterested and looked to her side, which annoyed Nico so much.

"Please take a seat until your drink is ready!" she told the new customer. Once the red head walked over to a booth, she ceased her fake smile and frowned instead. Nico was annoyed; that girl was so rude. _Not even a nod or a 'thank you'? Whatever._ She was glad that she would probably never see her again, hopefully she won't be a regular costumer. She didn't seem to be the type of person to be coming back to cafés like this.

She impatiently tapped her foot as the coffee brewed. _Maki… That's a nice name, _she thought to herself. Maki wasn't exactly a nice person, though. Once the coffee was finished brewing, she quickly goes to work and made the mocha for Maki. She peeked over to her to see what she was doing; she was on her phone. She noticed how the red head twirled the ends of her hair whilst waiting.

After the mocha was done, she acquired a pen and sloppily wrote Maki's name onto it. "Mocha for Maki-san?" she spoke out, the sweet tone in her voice gone as soon as she said the red haired girl's name.

Maki went up to the counter to take it. They locked eyes for a second, fierce with tension brimming, until Maki broke it off and walked toward the door to leave. She looked down on the phone in her hand and continued walking, unaware of the door opening. Once the chime was heard, Maki looked up to meet a flood of people coming in.

In the blink of an eye, she crashed into someone that was in a rush to line up for a coffee. She fell onto the floor; coffee began to seep into her cream coloured sweater and her phone slid away from her. She hissed in pain from the hot coffee and squeezed her eyes shut. No one offered her any help as they lined up to get coffee. Nico witnessed all of this and sighed. She hoped someone, even the clumsy Honoka came to her aid, but it seems that everyone else was too busy with the new customers. She had to help her, right?

_What a pain…_ she thought to herself. She could feel a headache coming. It had already been a long day but she had to do her job and help out.

Rushing over with napkins, she gave half of them to Maki.

"Here," she put them on Maki's hands. "For your sweater."

"Thanks," Maki began to wipe the remaining liquid in her coffee stained sweater while Nico hurriedly mopped the wet floor.

Nico picked her phone up and offered Maki herself a hand up as well. Nico gazed at Maki who was busy looking at her slightly wet phone, seeing if there was any damage done to it. Now that she got a closer look at Maki, she noticed how pretty she was. Nico, lost in her beautiful amethyst eyes only snapped back to reality when Maki coughs. "Uh…"

Nico jumped up and blushed slightly, embarrassed for being caught staring.

"M-My hand…" Maki coughed again, averting her eyes from Nico.

Nico immediately let go. "Sorry."

The two were quiet until Nico spoke up.

"…You should take off your sweater you know," Nico said as she eyed Maki's figure up and down. "You look like an idiot with that coffee stain on your sweater."

Maki rolled her eyes. "Right, thanks for the advice," she patted the dust off her skirt. "I don't think I'll be coming back again," she said to Nico.

"Try not to trip," she teased Maki as a smirk appeared on her face.

Light pink specks dusted her cheeks and she began walking away, phone clutched in her hand.

As Maki exited the shop, Nico secretly hoped that Maki was joking about the last thing she said. There was something about her that made Nico want to know more about her.

* * *

It was 10:30 PM when Nico's shift was finally over. It had been a busy day today, the same as ever. It was a Saturday, after all. She went to the changing rooms and put her uniform back. Holding her bag in her arm, she began to go home.

Unfortunately, Saturdays meant that Honoka's shift ended the same time as her. Even in a slightly better mood, Nico still did not feel like interacting with Honoka today. She tried to walk faster in order to avoid Honoka, but was stopped by the brunette's arm.

"Nico-chan, wait!"

Nico's eyebrow twitched as she had been caught by Honoka. "What is it? Make it quick," she replied back, irritation growing in her voice.

"I was wondering if you wanted to uh," Honoka brought out a small flyer from the depths of her handbag, "Go to this place! Me and Kotori-chan are going and I think you should come with us! You haven't been in a good mood lately and I think that coming would make you feel better!" the brunette almost shouted at her whilst pointing excitedly to the flyer.

Nico rubbed her temple with her left hand while she put her right on her hip. She sighed before speaking. She didn't really like it when Honoka acted like a child, but it can't be helped, right?

"...Alright," she finally said. "When are we going?"

Honoka's eyes lit up in joy and she hugged Nico. "Yay! Nico-chan!"

Nico tried to resist the hug and pushed on Honoka's shoulders. Honoka realised wha was happening and backed away.

"Oh, sorry, I guess I got carried away, eheh.." she rubbed the back of her head, giving an apologetic smile. "We're going on Tuesday night, around seven PM! You'll be free, right?"

"I'll see if I can make it," Nico said. In truth, Nico didn't have plans at all. Other than classes and work, she never hung out with friends or anything.

Waving to Honoka, she finally got to exit the café and approached a nearby bus stop.

After a small journey on the bus, Nico found herself at her apartment complex. It was dark and there was no one at all on the streets, save for a couple of neighbours taking out the garbage.

Feeling a cold wind come in contact with her face, she shivered and tried her best to dash to her apartment where it wouldn't be as cold. She clumsily took her key out of her pocket, hands numb from the cold.

She opened the door and was welcomed with a silence.

"I'm home," she said quietly. It was lonely. Her siblings and parents were so far away from her and she would sometimes pretend that there was someone at home waiting for her. It was sad, really.

Slipping her shoes off at the entrance, she locked the door. She walked to her bedroom and plopped down in the bed. She sighed, in deep thought about what had happened today at work. As she begins to close her eyes and drift to sleep, she was exhausted.

When she had fallen asleep, she found herself dreaming about a red haired girl, only to be forgotten as soon as she had woken up.

* * *

**A/N: Tada! The very first generic coffee shop AU for the Love Live section! I was looking around for AU's in the Love Live section and there were hardly any, so I thought I could contribute even though my writing skills aren't that good. I was just so excited to upload this!**

**Please bear with me if I don't update fast enough, I have a busy week ahead of me and I have another fanfic to update. Until the next update, bye for now!**

**Edit: [Aug 10] Why... Why did I used to write in present tense.**


	2. A Piano?

6:30 PM. That was what it said on the small watch on her wrist. She remembered what Honoka had said earlier in a phone call.

"Wear something nice! It's a fancy place!"

She could still hear an echo of Honoka's overly energetic voice even in the silence of her apartment. Now that she recalled, the flyer for the place had the words 'Piano Bar and Restaurant' etched onto it. _What a strange name, who would put a piano in a restaurant, _Nico thought to herself whilst checking her outfit in the mirror in front of her.

She had spent hours, literally hours, picking this outfit. Although Nico didn't have a lot of money, she still bought clothes she liked, expensive or not, but mostly expensive. She felt like she had to. It was something a future –as Nico had said– famous clothes designer had to do.

Her clothes would probably stand out in the crowd. Her dress was jet black with frills covering her chest area and a pink belt which hugged what can be called... her curves. Although this dress would be more suitable for a person who had a well-endowed body, this didn't stop Nico from wearing it. She hoped this would be fancy enough for the location that she would be going to within the next few minutes.

Upon opening the door, she was met with a cold wind. She shivered and wore her creamy white cardigan that covered her arms. Hopefully, this would keep her warm enough for the walk to the bus stop. Nico had sometimes sulked over the fact that she had no driver's license, it was just too expensive for her. Even if she could get a driver's license she would still have to purchase a car to even drive around town.

She made it to her local bus stop and began to wait. Boredom slowly took over, she then checked her watch again- 6:35 PM. The bus wouldn't come until a long 10 minutes. She looked out into the sky, noticing the painted pink fluffy clouds. The sun was about to set, which in turn dyed the entire sky in a lovely and soft orange. She was grateful that she didn't have work today; working would mean she wouldn't be able to get a glimpse of the sky in its full view. It was one of her favorite things, obviously asides from clothes design. The sky was something out of her reach, but also something so beautiful she couldn't help but try to reach out for it.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard the skidding tires of the bus. The bus door opened with a swing and a hiss from the engine on standby. She walked up, payed her fare and sat down in the front. She then put her handbag beside the spare seat to prevent anyone from sitting down on the seat beside her. Putting her right elbow onto the side of the window, she stared out into the sky again, appreciating its aesthetics.

* * *

The bus door swung open again, and a metallic voice came from the intercom over her head. It announced the location and Nico got up and out of the bus. It was dark, but thankfully the street lights illuminated the area she was in. She took out a small pocket mirror and looked into it to see if she looked all right. After a quick check, she puts it back into her handbag and checks the time yet again. 6:55 PM. Nico liked to be punctual and felt satisfied when she realized that she was the first one out of the three there.

She stood there in silence, patiently waiting for Honoka and Kotori. Now that she thought about it, wasn't Kotori… Honoka's girlfriend? She wasn't very sure. They were definitely the best of friends and cared deeply for each other, but she didn't know if they were currently dating. At a quick glance, anyone would believe that the two were dating. She remembered the times when Kotori would often come into the café solely to keep Honoka company. She noticed a few times that Kotori had these longing looks when she stared at the brunette, and how she smiled more when she was around Honoka. She mentally shrugged it off, it wasn't really her business to know, anyway.

Nico found out that it was now 7:00 PM and became confused. She looked around her surroundings to see if she was in the right place. They were going to meet up here… right? Maybe Kotori and Honoka would be here in a few minutes. Although Nico liked to be punctual, she absolutely hated when others were late. She continued waiting with all the patience she can manage to muster.

Seven minutes have passed by and she started to get impatient. Extremely impatient. And also irate. She was about to get her phone to call the childish Honoka until she heard her voice coming from behind.

"Nico-chan!" Honoka ran and waved at the same time, with Kotori not far from behind her.

"Sorry… we're… late!" she huffed out to a slightly angered Nico, a pant punctuating after every word in her sentence, as if to emphasize her attempt at trying to be on time.

Kotori caught up to the brunette, who didn't seem to be as exhausted as Honoka. As the brunette tried to catch her breath, Kotori decided to explain the situation for her instead.

"S-Sorry, Nico-chan," Kotori said apologetically. "We got on the wrong bus. As soon as we got on it, they wouldn't let us out until the next stop…"

Nico looked at the pair and let out a sigh. "Let's just go in. It's cold outside," she simply said to them, dismissing Honoka and Kotori's tardiness.

Once they enter the place, Nico was instantly welcomed by a fabulous restaurant. She had to really thank Honoka for inviting her to a place like this. She looked around. The floor was a sparkly clean and smooth marble floor, the center of the room had a grandiose chandelier on the ceiling and the atmosphere was… so grown-up. It was a place that Nico had hoped she would be regularly coming to once she would become a famous designer. She opened her mouth in awe. It certainly was as Honoka put it earlier: Fancy.

"…Nico-chan? You okay?" Kotori questioned, noticing the smaller girl that was standing still, frozen in place.

"Y-Yeah! I was just… so surprised," Nico said back to her, still looking around. How was Honoka able to afford coming here regularly? Honoka often chatted (more like _rambled_) to Nico at work that she would come here with Kotori almost every week. Nico thought that maybe she had underestimated the younger girl, it seemed.

A woman, more specifically, a waiter, comes over. She greeted the three girls politely.

"Table for three, ladies?" she asked in a polite tone.

"We have a reserved table," Honoka told her, "I reserved it a few days ago, by the name Kousaka!"

The waiter, in an elegant suit, checks on the computer for a Kousaka.

"Hmm… I see," she said out loud, mostly to herself, "Ah, yes! Please come this way, ladies," the waiter said whilst directing them to the table with one hand.

As the waiter began to lead them to the way of their reserved table, Nico spotted something in the corner of her eye. It was a piano, but there was no one there to play it. She wondered what type of music a posh restaurant like this would play. She can imagine someone beautiful and elegant would be playing the piano.

The waiter pointed to the table and handed a menu to each of the girls. The girls gave their thanks and the waiter nodded in reply, walking away. Nico's eyes followed the waiter and spots another thing. The bar counter. She secretly hoped that Honoka wouldn't bring her to the bar later, she can't quite handle her liquor, unlike a few people she knew. Two strong drinks for her and she's out like a light.

Nico looked down at the menu as Honoka and Kotori talk. She does a double take when she noticed the pricing on each of the dishes.

"W-What?!" Nico said in shock. She looked over to the brunette, a shaky finger pointing at the menu in her hand. "H-Have you seen these prices, Honoka?!"

Honoka could only let out a small giggle. "Don't worry, Nico-chan, it's all on me!" She stuck her tongue out cutely and winked.

Great. Now she was eternally grateful to Honoka. How could she ever repay her back? Even a designer dress wouldn't be enough. Even _ten _wouldn't even do for dinner at this place, she thought to herself.

Nico looked down at her menu again and gulps. Her mind was telling her to choose all the cheapest meals, but her heart was telling her to go for the dishes she wanted the most. Before her mental battle of conflict is resolved, a waiter –a different one – comes to take their order, pen ready in hand.

Thankfully, the waiter had started writing the orders of Honoka and Kotori. With a bead of sweat forming on her forehead, she trid to make a swift decision to-

"And you, miss?" the waiter asked, his pen resting on top of the notepad.

Nico panicked and began to trip over her words. She resorted to pointing out the meals instead in a hurry.

"T-This one, and this o-one, please!"

The waiter simply nodded at Nico, eyes jumping back and forth between the menu between Nico's hands and what he was writing down on his miniature notepad.

"Thank you very much, miss. Your first meal will be served shortly."

The waiter left and Nico breathed out a sigh; she had caved in at the spur of the moment, darn. It was too late for her to change her orders now that the waiter had left.

Elbow on table, right palm on face, she looks over to the two girls chatting beside her, not interested in contributing even one sentence to their conversation.

* * *

7:20 PM, and their first dishes come out of the kitchen, piping hot, as the waiter said. The waiter warned them to be careful and the girls acknowledge the advice given.

Nico got a spoon and scooped it into her soup slowly, acting ever so elegant, as if she were born into a rich family. As soon as she tasted it, she was in pure bliss. Kotori and Honoka witness as her face lightened up and she put a hand at the side of her cheek.

"D-Delicious!" was the only thing Nico could say at the moment.

Before she was more than happy to quickly get another spoonful, the air was filled with a soft melody playing. The music came from across the room, incidentally where the piano was. She looked over, trying to catch a glimpse of the person who was playing the tune. She expected a handsome man in his twenties or even thirties, but her eyes scanned to find a completely different person from her imagination.

She dropped her spoon into her plate as she began to sputter. The mood she was in was shattered as she recognized who it was. She noticed the crimson hair, the violet eyes. Although she had just met her once, she was all too familiar with it. It was certain, it was _her_.

"N-No way…" Nico sputters out, completely blown away by how beautiful a piece Maki was playing. She was mesmerized with the way her fingers moved to and from the keys so elegantly. Although she pressed on the keys quickly, it didn't make the song choppy at all. It flowed throughout the room, and was incredibly pleasant to listen to.

Nico didn't know whether to be extremely impressed or surprised. Maybe it was both, but all she was certain was that she couldn't keep her eyes off the red haired girl. She could feel something warm growing in the depths of her chest and felt her heart flutter for some unknown reason.

"…Nico-chan…?" Kotori asked, confused as to why Nico reacted like that.

"I can't believe this," Nico murmured to herself in a state of disbelief, unaware of Kotori and Honoka's confusion.

For the rest of her dinner, she would try to catch a few more glimpes every so often. Scratch that, it wasn't every so often, it was every few seconds. Nico had completely isolated herself from whatever Kotori and Honoka were talking about, she was far too focused on looking at the beauty that was Maki. There was something that drew Nico in to continue looking at her.

When dinner had finally ended, Nico excused herself to go to the bathroom. However, she was partly lying; she had hoped to also talk to Maki before returning to the table.

One thing she was never told: Where exactly was the bathroom? She had no idea that the restaurant was this big. Before she knew it, she had walked a circle and ended up in the same place as before. She pouted in frustration, forehead creased.

The clacking of heels on the smooth marble floor could be heard behind her. Before Nico had time to react and turn around, someone began to speak.

"Y-You!" the voice said. Nico eyes scanned behind her and up to meet a pair of lavender eyes. The person who had the lavender eyes was pointing straight at Nico.

"You're that person from the café! What are you doing here? Are you s-some kind of stalker?" Maki almost shouted, confusion in her voice.

Nico didn't think before she began to do the gesture- she waves her arms in front of her defensively. "No!" Nico said. "I am _not_ a you. I'm Nico. Nico Yazawa. I'm having dinner with friends," the shorter girl harrumphed at the end of her sentence, as if trying to gain the upper hand.

Maki laughed. "I didn't know you had friends. If you're with friends, how do you explain yourself walking around in circles?"

Nico blushed in embarrassment. She didn't want to tell Maki the truth. "N-None of your business."

"Well, okay then." Maki said, dismissing their current conversation and began to walk away.

"Wait!" Nico called out.

Maki stopped in her tracks and turned on her heel to face Nico.

"What is it?" she asked hastily.

"Can you," Nico's face reddened, she's never been this embarrassed before. Why was _she_ the only one around? She wished she could have asked someone else, but it was too late now. "…show me where the bathrooms are?"

* * *

**A/N: Hello! In my opinion, it ended on a lame note... I tried to make it end on some kind of cliffhanger and it just... ended like this... kind of pathetic to be honest? I'm laughing at my incredibly lame plot.**

**I was so surprised to see this fanfic have a good feedback for mediocre writing, thank you so much for all the reviews, favs and follows! I would be lying if I said that they didn't give me an ounce of motivation. **

**I'm considering whether to post this weekly or every three or five days, but it'll probably weekly. I was going to upload this on Monday, but I thought since the finale of Love Live! S2 is today I should upload this chapter slightly earlier in honor of the show.**

**Also, mind telling me if you want me to make a little sub plot for Honoka? If so, help me decide either Kotori or Umi, I'm not really sure. Or even other pairings? I'm considering to put other side pairings in here, but I'm worried that they'll be OOC ;;**

**Edit: [Jul 29] Hooray, I bothered my backside editing this. I'm not very happy with my past self that wrote in present tense.**


	3. Step One

It took Maki for about a whole twenty seconds to process what the girl in front of her had just said.

"… Are you serious?"

The shorter girl averted her eyes away from Maki and nodded. Seeing that Nico was serious, the red haired girl bursted out in laughs and almost doubled over. Nico was so embarrassed and really wished that Maki would stop laughing and help her instead. Maki wiped a tear away from her eye with a gentle swipe and began to stand straight.

"Okay," she nodded to Nico. "I guess… this is for you helping me out in the café last t-time…"

"Well, we're even now…" Nico said back, cheeks slightly red from something other than embarrassment. She didn't know that being alone with Maki could be slightly nerve-racking for her.

It goes quiet again as Maki led Nico to the bathrooms, with the pig-tailed girl behind her.

"Just know that I'm only doing this because you asked me!" the red haired girl exclaimed a bit too loudly, cheeks flaring up afterwards.

"R-Right," was the only thing Nico could mumble out as of now. She didn't know Maki's reactions would be this adorable.

Wanting to continue conversation, Nico thought of something up quick.

"…I didn't know that you played piano," Nico said in a teasing manner.

Maki's pace became slower. "Yeah," her features softened, "I love music. Played the piano for as long as I can imagine. Although I'm majoring in medicine, I still enjoy playing the piano. I can sing too, but playing the piano is what I mainly enjoying doing." Maki looked to her left, eyes peering through the window that overviewed the city. She seemed to be deep in thought, probably in pensive thoughts about music.

Nico could only stare at the taller girl in front of her, she was surprised that she could look so beautiful. She was also surprised, surprised that Maki could sing too. _She probably has a nice singing voice, too, _Nico wondered to herself, secretly wanting to hear it. In fear of being caught staring again, she coughed lightly into her hand and carried on the conversation.

"So you uh," Nico could feel the temperature in her face rising, "go to the college near the café, right?" For some reason, Nico felt that she had to know the answer to this. If needs be, she may even force the information out of the girl.

"Yeah," Maki replied back, not looking at the older girl. "I came last semester."

Nico backed away utterly shocked. "W-What?!"

Obviously confused, Maki stopped walking and wore a frown on her face.

"What?"

"I-I thought we were in the same year… I thought you were in your third year," Nico admitted, still surprised.

Maki widened her violet eyes as she realises that the girl in front of her was… an upperclassman.

"I thought you were around the same age as me! You don't… look older than me…" Maki said, voice growing smaller at the end.

Almost instantly, Nico became annoyed. She was annoyed that a girl like Maki was _younger_ than her. Annoyed that she was constantly assumed to be younger than her age. Annoyed that someone younger than her seemed more mature than her. One of her eyebrows twitched in irritation.

"That's right," she remarked, "I'm your upperclassman! You better respect me, the amazing Nico-senpai!" Nico huffed out proudly as she crossed her arms.

"I don't think that's really necessary, I mean, I'm used to talking to you like this," Maki waved it off with a simple gesture of the hand, which results in a swift blow to Nico's pride.

Although Maki was beautiful, talented and impressed Nico greatly, she still annoyed her.

"Well, here's the bathroom," Maki pointed to a door in front of her. "I should have started going home around ten minutes earlier, so I'm in a rush." Maki walked away, leaving Nico on her own.

Nico missed the red haired girl already, something she would never admit to anyone. She didn't think and instinctively held Maki by her wrist with her hand.

"Wait!"

The raven haired girl didn't realise what she had just done until Maki turned around. Cheeks dusted in a light pink, Nico yelped when she saw her own hand touching the red head's wrist.

"Sorry again," Nico apologized hurriedly.

They stood there awkwardly for a moment. The two girls were at a reasonably far distance from each other. Nico crossed her arms uncomfortably, while the other girl looked out of the window nearby.

"You actually kept to your promise and didn't ever come back to the café, huh," Nico pondered, speaking out first to break the silence that filled the room.

"Well, maybe I m-might come back when I'm in the mood for another coffee," Maki twisted the ends of her crimson hair and directed her eyes away from Nico.

"…You mean if you're in the mood to have another coffee spilled on your clothes?" Nico teased, to which Maki blushed furiously in embarrassment. Nico smirked at the sight.

"S-Shut up!" Maki stormed off, arms at her side.

_It was nice to talk to her again, _Nico thought to herself. She realised what she had just thought to herself and yelled in her mind.

* * *

"Nico-chan! Over here!" the energetic brunette called out to get the dark haired girl's attention. Nico noticed Honoka's stretched out arm in the air and makes her way back to the table. She breathed out a sigh. It turned quiet. Nico's crimson eyes looked to Kotori and Honoka, wondering why they hadn't started rambling about ridiculous things.

"…Did something happen between you two while I was gone?" Nico inquired, curious.

"N-N-Nothing h-happened!" Honoka answered the pig tailed girl a tad faster than expected. The conversation. It was too obvious whenever Honoka attempted to lie to anyone. Something definitely happened.

Skeptical, Nico furrowed her brows as she examined the duo. If they weren't going to explain, she supposed that she may as well just figure it out herself. Her eyes make their way to Kotori and she eyes her somewhat curiously.

Now that she thought about it, Kotori was definitely not as red as she is now. Perhaps she had some alcohol from the bar? Kotori also seemed to be looking down at the table, avoiding anyone's eyes. She kept to herself as she rudely neglected any chances of sparking a conversation, something that Nico seldom sees Kotori doing.

Ruby eyes meet sapphire blue. Nico narrowed her eyes slightly, frightening the poor brunette and earning a small "eep!" from the gesture. Frustrated, Nico let out a groan. She gave up playing detective straight away, it was no use.

"Come on, I won't know until you tell me! Jeez!" she protested loudly.

Other than clanking of plates and light chattering from other tables in the room, it was still hushed at their table. The two didn't seem to want to explain their current situation.

"Let's just go home, i-it's getting late now," Kotori insisted, smiling nervously. Honoka agreed with Kotori's suggestion and nods furiously.

Still frustrated with the two, the older girl pouts. She decided that maybe some teasing would do the trick to lighten the mood. It would do some good to the heavy atmosphere between the two, probably.

"Ah, I see~" Nico began to smirk, "The two lovebirds have got into a fight, have they?"

What she witnessed after is something she didn't expect at all from her teasing. Instead of denying it, laughing, or even any other reaction, Honoka and Kotori remained in a deathly silence. Awkwardness now lingered in the air; not exactly what Nico wanted. Nico frowned. These two were so helpless sometimes.

"W-We're not dating!" Kotori and Honoka mumbled out in an almost perfect unison. Their faces certainly didn't match the words that came out. The stuttering and blubbering made Nico doubt their answer. They had both seemed to be extremely flustered from Nico's words. Nico laughed to herself mentally, it was so obvious that they both liked each other. Maybe all they needed was one push; Nico could give them that push, but she decided against it. Again, it wasn't her business to be poking around in.

Honoka straightened her posture and quickly used her index finger to point at Nico.

"Enough about me, Nico-chan, who do _you _like?!" Honoka quickly changed topic successfully, catching the raven haired girl off guard.

For some reason, the image of a certain red head came into mind, but she quickly swatted those thoughts away. She fiddled with the frills of her dress and feels embarrassed. "N-No-one," was the answer that Nico decided to go with as she looked to the side.

She had realized something; she had absolutely no idea what time it was. Panic arised in her heart and she nervously flicked her wrist to check the time. 10:00 PM. Then, Nico jolted upwards when she realised that she was about to miss the last bus that would take her home.

"G-Guys, I have to go really quick," Nico rose from her chair, the legs of the chair screeching against the fine marble floor. "I'm gonna miss my bus!" she cried out as she bolted out the door. Nico didn't even bother to look back to see the two's responses, she just didn't have enough time. The bus stop was a few blocks away and she wasn't even sure if she would be able to make it in time. She felt the panic setting in her brain. If she missed this bus, she would have no alternatives; she certainly didn't have enough money for a taxi, her house was too far and that would mean the fare would cost dearly. Honoka was out of the option, she had owed her too much and her own stubbornness prevented her from asking. Kotori wasn't an alternative either, if she recalled correctly, Kotori didn't own a car.

She quickened her already fast pace, hoping to make it in time. She spots the bus, throws away her pride to yell at the bus in order to halt it. "Stop!" she called out as loud as she can. She was about to make it when the bus began moving, dust trailing behind the wheels. Nico, across from the bus stop, stood still in the darkness. No wonder she wasn't seen. The energy in her dissipated as she sat down on the bus stop. It was the last bus home, and she missed it.

In frustration, she pulls on her pig tails, ignoring the minor pain.

"Ugh! Why does this happen to me?!" she yelled out loud in rage, not to directed at anyone in particular.

Cars and trucks whizzed by with red lights flashing behind as Nico pouted angrily, back slumped against the glass of the shelter. She ignored the passing cars until she heard a soft screech of a tire nearby. Nico adjusted her head upwards when she heard the humming of a resting engine. She squinted her eye to see who it was, but only saw her reflection from the car's dark mirror. Eventually, the car mirror slid down and she was welcomed by a face with a pair of lavender eyes.

Before Nico can say anything, the driver begins to speak.

"You... uh," the driver stuttered awkwardly, "...missed your ride home right?"

Nico laughed quietly. She felt warm again in the presence of the girl with the purple eyes.

"Right," Nico closed her eyes, not being able to resist a smile. "Would you do the honour of giving Nico-ni a ride home?"

"I knew you were going to say that…" she sighed, a small smile etched onto her adorable features. "Well, come in the car then?"

Nico was impressed, yet again. Not only was Maki incredibly good at the piano, able to sing, beautiful, but she was also able to drive a car. Nico felt as if Maki's existence was for the sole purpose of annoying her and one upping her in everything. She entered the car at the side and sat in the front beside Maki. Noticing how everything was basically covered with white leather, she wondered how she could afford this. Her mouth opened, only to be closed when she realises that maybe she was overreacting just a little bit.

She looked over to her side to see Maki staring at her.

"I finally caught you staring at me, ahah! I'm just too beautiful, aren't I?" Nico said with an over exaggerated voice. She expected a flustering and stuttering girl, but in reality, Maki just frowned at her, unamused.

"I'm staring at you because I need to know where to drive you," Maki explained to her, closing her eyes and sighing.

Embarrassed, Nico regretted her attempt to tease the younger girl. She got her phone out of her handbag and clicked on the GPS application. She pinpointed their current location as 'A' and her home as 'B'.

"H-Here," Nico handed the phone over to Maki, voice still uneven from embarrassment. "Just follow these directions."

Maki took the phone, and in turn, her fingertips brushed off the raven haired girl's hands. Nico could feel an electric shock coming from where Maki's fingers came in contact on her hands. She quickly turned her head to the side and looked out to the window. She hoped that Maki didn't notice her rosy cheeks. During the quiet ride home, Nico kept replaying the short event. She still felt the lingering feeling of Maki's soft and slender hands.

What was supposed to be a long journey seemed to be a short one. Maki stopped the vehicle outside her apartment building, expecting her to leave without asking.

"The next time you come to the café, I'll get you a free drink," Nico winked before stepping out the car.

"It's fine!" Maki shouted out from the car. "I appreciate the offer, though."

The air between the two became quiet as the two girls didn't want to part from each other yet.

With all the courage she could find in herself, Nico decided to do something rather bold.

"…Can I have your number…?" she asked, hoping that Maki wouldn't ask her reason for it. To be honest, Nico didn't exactly know why she wanted it anyway.

"S-Sure? I don't see why not," Maki said, slightly taken aback from an out of the blue request. She clumsily searched around for her phone in her purse.

A beep and a jingle come from both phones indicated that they have each other's numbers registered on their own phones.

"Well, I'll be seeing you whenever," Maki said quietly as the windows rolled back up automatically.

"Right," Nico said, looking the other way as she tried to hide a wide smile that didn't seem to want to go away. "See you."

As soon as the car left the neighbourhood, Nico raced upstairs to her apartment. She put the key inside the door, and with a swift motion of her hand, she opened it. She closed it as she came in. Slipping off her shoes, she called out her usual greeting when she came back.

"I'm home!" she chimed, clearly happier than usual.

She made her way to the living room couch. Turning on the phone that she was holding, she searched for Maki's number. Eager eyes scan the names in her contacts as her fingers swipe down. She stopped once she had found what she was searching for. 'Maki Nishikino', it had said. She could feel another wave of pure joy when she read the name. She let out a triumphant yell that echoed into the apartment.

That was the first step in getting to know her better, she supposed.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed chapter three! I actually didn't expect for this part to have two chapters. I had originally planned to write Nico seeing Maki perform at the bar and that was it... but it just sort of... became longer as I wrote the second chapter. As always, reviews, favs and are really appreciated! I love seeing your reactions to my writing!**

**Where's the fluff, you say? I uh... don't know what you're talking about? What's fluff? No idea... pfhh. Fluff will be here in later chapters, don't worry.****  
**

**By the way, I thank you all for the reviews on whether or not I should add more pairs into this fanfic. My answer to that is that I will continue making it just NikoMaki, since it's probably the reason the majority of you guys are reading this fanfic for! I figured I can make some small subtle hints to other pairings and that's it, so my minor problem is solved!**

**I'll see you in the next chapter, until then, bye!**

**Edit: [Jul 21] Hooray, I had time to edit this. This chapter was the one that bothered me the most... I don't know why but when I'm half-asleep writing I seem to write in present tense? I also added a few extra sentences here and there, so that's a little bonus for those that read the previous version, I guess. Maybe I should actually edit these in order...**


	4. Be My Valentine?

Valentine's Day came and unfortunately it day was a day where Nico would be working at the café. Maybe she was actually grateful. It was a legitimate reason as to why she wouldn't be able to spend time with her 'loved' one, if there was one in the first place. Although Nico didn't have anyone on this fateful day, she didn't really mind.

... Or so she thought. She wouldn't have minded if it weren't for the decorations of the café and the couples currently in the shop that constantly reminded her that she was single. She was so bothered by the lovey-dovey couples that would do… couple-y things together. It made Nico miserable, but she held her head up and would deny it to anyone accusing her of being jealous.

All around her, the café was decorated in silly big red love hearts everywhere imaginable. A big fluffy love heart on the door. Paper love hearts stuck onto the walls and floor. A chalk-drawn love heart beside the menu of drinks. Red and pink themed tables and chairs. Hell, even decorations outside of the bathroom.

She furrowed her brow and sighed. It was busy as well. Plus, Honoka wasn't working the same shift as her and she wouldn't come in to hang out with the lonely Nico; apparently there was something important that came up relating to Kotori. She laughed bitterly, her junior had just ditched her for her girlfriend, after all those times where she had helped her out. The nerve of her!

She continued working and in her spare time, she had noticed the sky outside of the café. Although the nearby buildings partially covered her view of the sky, she didn't mind. Even a glimpse would be enough to satisfy her.

A customer came up and asked to acquire some napkins, to which Nico happily gave out. She took the napkins from behind the counter and gave it to them with a fake smile. Sometimes pretending to be all jolly and cutesy tired the black haired girl. However, her façade was all for the sake for a raise in her wages. As her boss had said, "_Always provide service with a smile!" _It was ironic though, seeing that Nico had never seen the boss smile, ever.

The chime from the door goes off and Nico got ready to act all happy again. As soon as she realised who it was, her fake smile turned into a genuine smile. Actually, it was more of a smirk.

"Look who's back again!" the twin haired girl remarked as she put her hands on the sides of her hips.

Amethyst eyes meet ruby hesitantly as she walks up to the counter, not even bothering to take a glimpse of the menu.

"Aw, all alone on Valentine's Day?" Nico asked mockingly. Now was the time to tease the younger girl. "Want Nico-ni to be your Valentine's?"

"W-What?!" Maki exclaimed loudly at the question directed at her. Her cheeks flare up at the thought of her and Nico being each other's Valentines. What if she were to accept and they would end up do-

Before Maki had finished processing that inappropriate thought, she tried to regain her calm composure and huffed.

It took a while for Maki to talk, and Nico had wondered what the lavender eyed girl was thinking about. Was she honestly considering?

"Ha ha, very funny," Maki said, sarcasm dripping from her words.

_Never mind, _Nico thought to herself.

"So, what's your order? How about you try the super lovey-dovey café au lait? Or wait," Nico pulled out a menu from counter. "How about this? A couple discount milkshake? Oh wait, you don't have anyone!" Nico said, teasing the red head with much satisfaction in her tone.

Nico wondered if she had crossed a line with her from the red head's reaction and was about to apologise until Maki smacked her head with the menu on the counter. Maki's eyes closed as she folded her arms.

"You know what I want, the same as last time," she began to twirl the ends of her crimson hair as her eyes flitted to the floor. "…I never got to try that mocha."

"Okay, okay, got it." Nico pressed on the buttons to process her order. "It's 290 yen," Nico quickly put her hand palm-side up and waited for the younger girl to give her the amount needed.

"Impatient today, aren't you?"

Nico simply ignored her remark and continued to talk. "It's on the go, right?"

Maki shook her head in response. "I'll be having it here."

"A young maiden having mocha alone in a couple-filled coffee shop, how miserable!" Nico narrated with utmost sarcasm, mostly to annoy Maki.

"S-Shut it!" Maki walked away to a table and chair nearest to the counter.

Once Maki was out of her sight and reach, Nico sighed. Why had she asked her to be her Valentine? Was it a joke or was it honestly an attempt in trying to ask her out? Why was she upset that Maki didn't accept? She looked down at the cash register as she bit her lip.

_Of course she wouldn't say yes, you idiot. _

Compared to Maki, Nico was… a nobody. When you compare the two girls, Nico was but a pebble whilst Maki was a shining gem. Maki basically had everything; wealth, beauty and talent. What did Nico have? Nothing, really. Other than her passion for fashion design and her family, she didn't have anything. She let out a sigh again as she went to replace a new filter in the coffee machine.

She looked to her side to find the clock on the wall. 6:12 PM. It wouldn't be long until her shift was over, there was only less than an hour left. Putting the finished mocha onto a saucer, she got out of the counter to give the beverage to Maki. Nico scanned around the room to find the girl, and her eyes rested on the red haired girl as soon as she found her. As she was about to place down the drink, she noticed Maki holding her phone beside her ear, supposedly talking to someone.

"Yeah, okay… Rin, okay. You don't need to be so loud! We can meet up… ah… the café near the campus? Okay. Yeah, okay, I'll see you in a few days," Maki said, completely unaware of Nico beside her. She released a sigh and looked down on the table, in pensive thoughts. Only the clanking of the saucer under her mocha brought her back to reality.

Maki jumped up slightly, surprised. "W-When did you get here?"

"I was right beside you this whole time," Nico put a hand on her hip. "That was your boyfriend, right? Poor Maki-chan's boyfriend couldn't be with her on this special day? Aw!"

Maki furrowed her brow before she began to explain. "She's not my boyfriend, and she's my best friend, for your information!" she took a quick sip of her mocha in anger, hot liquid burning her tongue. "H-Hot!" she yelped out in pain.

Nico could only laugh at the sight in front of her. "Idiot." She would never admit that she was slightly happier to hear the Maki wasn't taken by anyone. With a badly hidden smile, she walked back to her counter. Bored, and with the rush hour of customers over, she palmed the side of her face. Her eyes seem to draw back to the red head that was currently sitting at the tables near the counter.

As soon as she realised that she was zoning out whilst staring at Maki, she quickly averted her gaze, face flaring up in embarrassment; it would be bad to be caught staring again. Why was she drawn to Maki? Why was she such a distraction for the raven haired girl?

Minutes past by slowly, as Nico slumped on a stool, bored. She wanted to talk to Maki, but not sure what they should talk about. Nearly all her attempted conversations included her teasing the red haired girl. A quiet sigh escaped from her lips. Her shift was nearly over though, which was a good thing.

She noticed that Maki's mug was empty and instead of leaving, she was preoccupied with the phone in her hand.

"Not leaving, huh? Do you really enjoy my presence that much?" Nico teased, pretending to look shocked as she placed her hand in front of her mouth.

Refusing to answer, Maki continued looking down at her phone and she was… blushing? Blushing because of what, though?

Nonetheless, it didn't matter to Nico once the clock indicated that it was 7:00 PM, the time where her shift ended. She took one last glimpse of the tables and noticed that there was hardly anyone left, save for Maki and two more occupied tables. As always, she folded her uniform neatly before putting it into her small locker. She tightened her pigtails, apparently loose from walking to and from the tables to the counter all day.

Once she exited the changing rooms, she noticed that there were some left over chocolates from today. She remembered that the chocolates were a complementary treat for anyone who would order from the couple's menu. It seemed like it wasn't really a popular offer, seeing that there were still some untouched and unopened. Before she walked out of the counter, she decided to take some and put it into her satchel she brought to work. It wouldn't hurt to take some, right?

Nico noticed that Maki was about to stand up from the table as she heads for the front door. She slowed down her pace, looking at Maki. Maybe she should talk to her. Or even give her some chocolates as a joke...

She sighed before putting up a confident front. Chin up and back straight, she marched to where Maki was. Fumbling around in her satchel to find the small pieces of chocolate, she grabbed as much as her small hands allow her to. Maki froze, an unreadable emotion on her face.

"For you," Nico couldn't resist her urge to scratch her cheek as she felt a familiar warmth. "These were left over chocolates from today's promotion. I-I'm only giving it to you because you have no-one on Valentine's Day." Nico looked away, embarrassed.

"…T-Thanks." Maki looked down at the chocolates on her hand, surprised at Nico's kind gesture. The chocolates were enveloped by a clear wrap, tied at the top with a red ribbon. Each of them had their own unique designs, suggesting that they had different flavors and fillings in them.

"My shift's over so…" Nico continued to peer through the window instead of looking at Maki. "I'll be going now."

"Hold on," Maki said a bit too quickly. "C-Can I come too…? You're going to the bus stop, right? That's where my butler is collecting me."

Nico, taken aback, processed what Maki had just said to her. Maki had a butler? She was _that_ rich? If she had a butler, she wondered if the red head also had servants to do her bidding at home. Speaking of home, Maki's house would probably be some kind of mansion.

"Alright, you can come." Nico tries to sound annoyed, but in actuality her mood brightened greatly at the fact that Maki would be walking with her. "Just keep up with me!"

Once again, they walked to the bus stop in silence. Although this time, the silence wasn't that awkward. It was to be expected. What was Nico thinking? They weren't even that close. Did she really expect that they would be able talk to each other for the entire duration of the walk? She didn't even know much about the girl. Other than the fact that she's a rich girl that plays piano and that she was..._ really attractive._

"We're here," Nico announced, to which Maki goes wide eyed.

"But this is so," Maki looked at the bus stop, confused. "…small?"

Nico face-palmed herself in annoyance. _What an idiot. Hasn't she ever gone on public transport before? Was she that rich? What did she expect, anyways?_

"Where's your ride home?" Nico asked, ignoring Maki's ridiculous comment.

"Oh, uh, Fujimura-san will be here anytime soon, there's probably some traffic." Maki twirled the strands of her hair, unamused.

Nico sat down on the bench of the bus stop. "Why were you at the café for so long when you had already finished your mocha? Weren't you bored?"

Before Maki had time to respond, Nico thought of something.

"Ohoh~ Did you just really want to see the diligent Nico at work?" Nico asked, a big smirk on her face.

Maki faced downwards, a rosy hue on her cheeks appear for what seemed to be a moment. Once she looked up, she was back to normal, twirling the ends of her crimson hair again.

"It's not like I was bored, per se. I got to talk to you for a little while so it wasn't really tha-" she stopped twirling her hair, after realizing that she blurted out something that wasn't meant to be said in front of Nico. She looked at Nico, hoping that she didn't pay attention. Unfortunately for her, she heard every word of it.

"Wha-?" Nico said, shocked. She didn't know how to respond.

"F-Forget it!" Maki put her arms in front of her in defense. "Pretend I never s-said anything!" she looked away, mentally hitting at herself for saying something like that out loud.

Nico was quiet as she looked up at the sky, suddenly finding it interesting.

"My butler's here I'll… s-see you later, okay bye!" Maki's words were quick and choppy as embarrassment took over her. Nico didn't bother to look back or even utter out a word to her. She heard the car drive off as she continued looking up at the sky. It was a pleasant orange.

All alone, Nico felt her entire face heating up and her heart thrashing wildly inside of her ribcage, heart rate rapidly increasing. Trying to calm herself down, she puts her hands up to her red hot face.

Did Maki just say what Nico had thought she said?

* * *

**A/N: I hope you liked this chapter! I edited this chapter hurriedly, so if there were any errors, it would be kind of you to tell me. Also, this story got over 1k views! Thank you so much for reading this!**

** By the way guys,**** in a few days time I'll be going on a two week vacation, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to write that much... I'll probably be dragged around everywhere nonstop. Rest assured, I'll write as much as I can before leaving so I can update for the next two weeks without any delay.**

**Thank you for the reviews, favs, follows I appreciate it a lot!**

**Until the next update, goodbye!**

**Edit: lunarsaber12: That's a good idea! I am consider writing this story in Maki's POV. Not sure if I will actually do that though, seeing that I'm extremely lazy and I mostly write for fun.**

**Edit: [Aug 14] **


	5. Хорошо Coffee

It had only been a few days after what had happened, but it still never failed to make Nico flustered whenever she thought about what Maki said to her at the bus stop.

Once her classes had ended, she checked her watch for the time. It would be soon until her next shift would start, so she decided to walk in a faster pace so as to be on time.

Nico found herself thinking about what had happened between her and the younger girl. What exactly did she mean before? Does it mean something more than that? Actually, _why _was she even there in the first place? It was Valentine's Day, a day where people spent time with the ones they loved.

_Wait a second… spend time… with the ones you love? Didn't she just spend time with me at the coffee shop? _Nico's initial reaction was the mad thumping of her heart in her chest. Her eyes darted around the pavement she was walking on, avoiding the eager eyes of passers-by that bored into her. She had to be over analyzing it, right, that had to be it! _Why would Maki like me, anyways? _

She continued walking, wiping a concentrated bead of sweat that appeared on the side of her forehead.

Making it on time to the coffee shop, she sighed out a breath of relief. She had to be the best employee there, and that meant serving with a smile on her face _and _also being punctual. Angry on the inside that she hadn't arrive early enough for her liking, Nico let out a huff of frustration. She ceased her bad mood as soon as she pushed the door and walked in.

She exchanged greetings with those working, mostly to the colleagues that she was most familiar with. During the time that she made her way to the changing rooms, she saw the back side of her boss. He was most likely grumpy about something, something suggested from the way he folded his arm and stiffened his back. She gave off her trademark smile and said a few words to the boss before she entered the changing room to get ready for work.

It was a Friday, meaning Honoka would be here in around a half an hour or so. She wondered if she should ask the brunette about what she did on Valentine's Day with Kotori, maybe she should also tease her about it. If she remembered correctly, didn't they get in some kind of situation earlier? She remembered how distant they were from each other at the restaurant and how they weren't being themselves as per usual. Honoka wasn't exactly jumping around the place, eyes darting around to things that amused her during dinner. They probably made up sometime between that day and yesterday, she pondered whilst changing into her work clothes.

Upon leaving the changing rooms and going to the counter, she fumbled around the straps of her apron. Why couldn't they have more sizes? She remembered when she had first applied working here; the boss had interviewed her and asked if she had gotten her parents' permission for working here. Apparently, he thought Nico was 15. Absolutely fuming on the inside, she politely showed him her ID card to prove that she was, of legal age to be working, and certainly did not need her parents' permission. It irked her so much, it was certainly something that the raven haired girl would never forget. Maybe that was the beginning of when she had started having a dislike for the boss.

It was only 4:42 PM, and that meant that the rush hour of customers would soon come flooding into the shop. The chiming from the door indicated a new customer coming in. Again, she smiled, swatting away recent thoughts of the past. As soon as her eyes registered who the customer was, she gave a genuine grin. Only she could have ocean blue eyes that seemed to be endless when you looked into them.

"Eli?" she asked rhetorically, already knowing the answer.

The blonde paced up to the counter slowly, sapphire eyes scanning for a suitable drink for herself. She placed a finger under her bottom lip as she hummed, deep in thought. Upon deciding on something, she smiled and turned to meet Nico's eyes.

"Nico! Nice seeing you here," Eli said whilst brushing the stray strands of hair in front of her face, probably due to the windy weather. "I almost forgot that you had started working here. It's been a while, how are you doing?"

Eli and Nico had met through Nozomi, the blonde's best friend. Although, if Nico thought about it, they seemed to be something more than that... Eli was majoring in voice and dance, currently in her third year, the same year as Nico and Nozomi. The three third years, including Nozomi, often hung out together whilst in their second year. They were close, but once the third year had begun, they were almost too busy to spend time with each other. They still kept contact sometimes, but not as much as before. Nico had missed them secretly, too stubborn to admit enjoying the presence of the blonde and violet haired girls greatly.

"I'm doing well… if it weren't for the awful smell of coffee. I'm so sick of it," Nico said truthfully. Eli and Nozomi were the only few people that she would show her true self to, which was extremely rare.

Eli giggled softly in response, laughing at Nico's reply. "I actually quite like the smell of coffee here."

"Ahah… You wouldn't if you worked here for more than 3 months." Nico remarked, crossing her arms in the process. "You gonna order something?"

"Of course," Eli said, while looking over at the menu at the wall again. "I'll have…" she began to think again, her lips forming a thin line as she thought of her order. "A whole grande café au lait, and that's it," she declared finally.

"Alright, okay," Nico said whilst entering numbers into a computer. "240 yen, then."

The blonde Russian takes out money and hands it to Nico, who gladly takes it.

"For here, right?"

A curt nod from Eli gave her the answer. Nico continued the conversation, truly curious in how she has been doing recently.

"Why are you here anyways?" Nico asked while getting ready to make the drink for Eli. In the process of it, she found herself changing the filter of the coffee machine. "Where's Nozomi? You guys are always together?" Nico asked again, a brow raised slightly.

Eli wore a hurt smile on her face as soon as she heard the name. "She's…. busy." Eli made herself comfortable and sat down on a chair near the counter to continue their conversation. "She has a project to do and she insisted that I don't come over to her apartment. It gets kind of lonely sometimes, I haven't seen Nozomi in a week. I miss her."

The three best friends had definitely not been together for over a good few months. The dark haired girl quietly noted to herself how easily Eli missed Nozomi. Nico could only smile softly at Eli. "You know, if you like her that much, you should ask her out. "

Eli immediately looked up at the raven haired girl, currently taller than her as she stood over her. A few beats later, she averted her eyes to the window. "I-I don't like her like that! We're best friends!" the blonde found it hard to stay still and she shifted nervously in her seat, fidgeting with the strap of her handbag.

"Hm? Really?" Nico teased, stretching the last word of her sentence. "What's with that reaction then? Hmm?" a coy smile appeared on her face. Eli felt the heat growing in her face as she continued to remain quiet and hoped for her blush to go away.

She figured that that was enough of teasing the Russian and handed her the café au lait that was just prepared. Eli gave her thanks, stuttering a bit, before she takes a sip of the coffee. Her embarrassment seemed to disappear as she began to enjoy her drink. Quietness took over, the two best friends simply enjoying each other's company.

"You know Nico," Eli gently places the mug on the table after taking another sip. "I've never heard you talk about having crushes on people. Do you have anyone you like?"

Nico froze. Darn. She hoped that Eli wouldn't talk to her about things like these. It always ended up horribly, with Nico trying her best to change the subject. Almost robotically, she stiffly faced her blonde friend.

"No! N-No, no! Of course not! There's no one good enough for the charming Nico-ni!" Nico tried her best to sound confident, locking away her nervousness. Why was she nervous, anyway? Was it the fact that she instantly thought of the red haired beauty that was Maki?

Eli noticed the badly hidden nervousness in her tone and smiled slyly. The hesitation in Nico's voice definitely meant something. "Come on," she egged on, "tell me about it."

"W-Why would I tell you?!" she aggressively snapped back at Eli, hoping that she would drop the subject already.

"Hmm… because we're close friends? Come on, Nico, I'm just curious."

In defeat, Nico decided that maybe telling Eli would be okay. She just hoped that Nozomi wouldn't know. God knows what Nozomi would do when she knew and how much Nico would be constantly teased by her. She can imagine it now, Nozomi would tease her whenever she would see her and would annoyingly beg to know what her crush looked like.

"I think… I like her anyways," Nico mumbled out, voice small. "Her name is–" just then, Nico bolted upwards as the quiet atmosphere is broken with the chiming of a door. She grumbled, until she saw who it was. She was speechless. What great timing, it was Maki, the girl she was _just_ talking about. Speak of the devil.

Nico analysed her face that was slightly crinkled by the frown and the pout she wore. Maki was probably in a bad mood. Whatever face Maki made, Nico still thought her to be adorable, in her opinion. She omitted a scary atmosphere around her, and Nico made a mental note that teasing her would be a bad idea today. She gulped. She couldn't help it, but her heart beated loudly from her chest at the sight of Maki. How was she going to approach her today, after what had happened last time they had met?

She expected Maki to come up and say something to her, or even order something, for goodness' sake. Unexpectedly, she walked past the counter and sat down at a booth beside an orange haired girl. Their conversation was mostly inaudible, so she decided not to eavesdrop. Eavesdropping wasn't exactly something a good employee would be doing now.

Eli lifted a brow up in question, eyeing Nico that was still behind the counter.

"That was…" Nico whispers out, once Maki was supposedly out of range. "…my… crush…" she was irritated. Why didn't Maki say anything at all to her? She didn't know whether to feel annoyed or actually grateful. After what had happened, she wasn't sure how to act around Maki anymore.

"She's very…" Eli tried to think up of a good word. "…sociable," Eli ended with that.

"Oh, shush," Nico said as she pouted. "She's just not in a good mood today, probably. I don't know what's up with her, anyways."

In the corner of her eye, her ruby eyes noticed Maki and her ginger-haired friend. Now that she remembered, that was probably Rin. The last time Maki was here, Nico recalled that she was talking to Rin and agreed to meet up here.

"Maki! Rin missed you, nya!" the slightly shorter girl called out as she hugged Maki. She saw that Maki smiled softly and returned the hug. Deep in her heart, she felt a tinge of jealousy and frowned at the sight. Why didn't Maki smile like _that_ for her? And _why_ was that… Rin so close to her? It annoyed her to no end. Did she just say _nya_ at the end of her sentence? What was she, a cat? _Why am I questioning so many things? _Nico thought to herself as she crossed her arms.

"Uh," Eli noticed the changes in Nico's features, "You okay?"

"Yeah," the pig-tailed girl replied, stone cold and flat.

Eli saw the hurt… or maybe the jealousy in Nico's eyes? She saw some kind of negative emotion evident on Nico's face, and softly pinched the bridge of her nose. What did that girl get herself into?

"Hello, everyone!" Honoka announced her arrival as soon as the chime of the door was heard. Honoka walked over to a non-respondent Nico and waves her hand in front of her. "Hello hello, Nico-chan, you there?"

Nico snapped out of whatever she was thinking about, and darted her eyes to the brunette in front of her.

"Oh, Honoka. Hi," she said to Honoka in front of her, still pouting slightly.

Honoka noticed Eli and smiles when she sees her friend. "Eli-chan, hey! It's been a while since we last saw each other, huh!" Honoka stated, more than questioned.

Eli returned the gesture of smiling and took another sip of her coffee. "It has, yes. How have you been? You've just started your second year, right?"

Honoka nods. "Mm-hm! Yeah! I've been doing good, I hope you are too."

The two continue to participate in small talk as Nico continued to glare at the booth that contained Rin and Maki. A tap on her shoulder got her to turn over.

"Take these two drinks to table 6, please," her other colleague asked her politely.

With the two drinks in hand, she found out that table 6 was where… Maki and Rin were. Just her luck. She noticed that the two were close, like sitting way too close together. She saw that Rin was whispering something into the red haired girl's ear. Whatever it was, it made Maki's face flush a crimson red. _Ugh, flirting in broad daylight._ It was clear to say that Nico was irritated.

Nico placed the drinks on the table with a bit too much force, some liquid spilling out at the sides of the cups. "Your drinks." Nico said quickly to them through gritted teeth.

"Many thanks, nya~" the orange haired girl, supposedly Rin, said.

Nico looked at Maki, who was currently peering out the window, invested in whatever was out there. Nico was annoyed. She didn't even bother to look at her. Nico walked away, back to the counter. The pout remained on her face as she looked at Honoka and Eli.

* * *

"Come on Maki, why didn't you do it, nya?" Rin questioned the red head that was now looking down at the mug between her slender hands. She blushed. "Rin's trying their best to help you and Nico get together!"

Her blush darkened at her best friend's words. "Rin…! Don't say it like that… I'm only asking her out to a place…" Maki trailed off as she blew to cool the coffee in her hands.

"Right, right," Rin waved her reason dismissively, "but you do _like_ her though, right, nya?"

Maki remained quiet, her amethyst eyes finding their way up to catch a glimpse of Nico at the counter. She saw the raven haired girl pouting, and also talking to someone. Once Nico noticed her staring, she darted her cold eyes towards Maki, to which Maki diverts her eyes somewhere else. Embarrassed from being caught staring, she takes a quick sip of her coffee.

"Y-Yeah…"

* * *

**A/N: I hope you liked that chapter! I know this a fanfic from Nico's POV but I guess it would be okay to write in Maki's POV in order to advance the plot? Maybe that part at the end wasn't necessary, maybe it was, but I only did it because I felt like it. I had written this way before suggestions on writing only in Nico's POV, by the way. When writing future chapters, I'll still write in Nico's POV, so don't worry. Also my chapter names are ridiculous, especially for this one, feel free to laugh at my non-existent creativity.**

**Well, halfway into my vacation and I haven't written a word for the next chapter. I hardly had time to sit down and edit this chapter, I only have a few hours to use the PC... Feel free to point out any possible errors. And for the next chapter, I think I can confidently say that it'll be delayed. I'll be back home on a Monday and will be taking a small break. I'll probably update 2-3 days late, so apologies for that, I hope you're okay with that... I think I'll spend some time editing and cleaning up earlier chapters, too.**

**Until the next update, goodbye!**


	6. Brewing Up A Storm

Her small and slender back hit the familiar oak door. She slumped down and groaned. Irritation grew inside of her, and she couldn't help but let a groan of annoyance escape her lips. There was rain. Everywhere in sight, with no showings of it letting up. The girl, who had just finished a late night shift at a good old café, fumbled around her satchel to find her house key, with no expectations to actually find it, but she might as well. A violent wind gusted through the apartment complex, making Nico shiver slightly with the cold.

For the past few days, Nico couldn't help but think of Maki, more specifically, she played back what she saw at the café over and over again. Rin being a tad too close to Maki for Nico's liking, Rin causing the younger girl to blush just by whispering something in her ear. It irked her a lot. A prickling feeling of jealousy –although Nico would deny it – was in her heart when she thought too much about what she saw.

Apart from one or two encounters she had with Maki and her phone number (that Nico thought she miraculously got), what were they to each other? She knew that Maki and Rin were best friends, but what was Nico to her? Was she even considered a friend? She could hardly be called a friend, they had only talked a few times here and there. Acquaintances? Possibly. Nico sighed again, the weather and her negative thoughts dragged her into a miserable state.

Now in the balcony, she was locked outside her house and her house key was gone… What would she be doing now? Her spare key was with Nozomi in her own apartment. A walk to Nozomi's place or even a bus ride would be out of the question. Nico had been trying her utmost best to save money, she had wanted to buy more fabrics so as to make her designs come to life. Unfortunately for her, the prices in the fabrics and materials she so desired rose up in price, which definitely means that it'll take quite a huge chunk out of Nico's wallet. Living a slightly below middle class life was tough.

Upon finding nothing to do, Nico took her mobile phone out, inspecting what was on the screen with a pout. Scrolling and a lot of tapping somehow resulted in her going to her contacts. Her ruby eyes managed to land on a certain contact with the name of 'Maki Nishikino'. Nico had pondered whether to call her or not, she never had a reason to call her. She didn't have anything to do, so why not call her now? Her small finger reached to the call button as she held her phone near her ear.

A few beats and a few beeps later, Maki picked up. Nico gulped.

"Hello? Nico-chan…?"

Her heart began to race again as she fidgeted on the strap of her bag. She had forgotten what she was going to say to her.

"H-Hey," Nico said back with nervousness.

"So… why are you calling me? Do you need anything?" Maki asked, unamused. Nico can imagine the younger girl twirling her hair as she spoke to her.

"I, uh," Nico began to feel flustered and stuttered. "Wanted to... uh… s-see if you were okay." Her eyes widened when she realized what a stupid mistake made. She face-palmed herself. She wanted to think of something up to fill in the awkward gap between their conversation, but she didn't want to say something as awkward as _that._

"If I'm okay? W-Why wouldn't I be?"

"Just… forget about it," Nico said whilst rubbing the bridge of her nose and willing her faint blush away. She groaned inwardly about her awkwardness. _Good job, Nico._

The cold wind, colder than ever swept through Nico and the balcony she was currently at. She wrapped her free arm around her shoulder, hoping to warm herself up. If it wasn't raining, she would have gone back to the café to find her key. The cold overwhelmed her, and she let out a loud sneeze.

"Nico-chan? Are you sick?"

"No, I'm just… outside my house."

"Outside? In _this weather_?" Maki asked, her voice going a pitch higher.

"I'm locked outside my house, you idiot."

"Where's your key?"

"I… I don't know. I lost it," Nico told her as her mood lowered.

"Look who's the real idiot now," Maki said. "Wait outside, I'll be there in a few minutes."

"W-Wait what? Why?" the older girl asked, her blush appeared on her face again.

"Look, you'll need somewhere to stay until the rain lets up and I don't think you'd be able to go to a friend's house on your own, right? Who's the idiot now?"

Thinking about it, Maki was right. Honoka and Kotori were on some kind of vacation in another city, Nozomi was still doing her project and Nico had no idea what Eli's new phone number was.

"…Okay."

She removed the phone from her ear, and slumped down. Maki was surprisingly… nice. She felt a familiar warmth flood her cheeks again as she sat still on the cold complex floor. She wondered if Maki was actually interested in girls, because she certainly seemed interested in that… cat girl, Rin. Totally not because she wanted to see if she even had a chance with her.

* * *

Staying true to her words, the red head was there in a quick few minutes. As soon as Nico heard a car nearby, she knew it was her. Nico checked herself out in the pocket mirror, noticing how windswept and messy she looked. She fixed her appearance in no time before she started to dash downstairs to Maki's car.

Windows roll down to reveal a red haired girl wearing a frown.

"Get in, quick! You're soaking wet," Maki said, to which Nico hurriedly opened the door to get in. "How did you lose your own house key, you idiot?"

Nico scowled slightly from Maki's verbal jab and glared daggers at said girl.

"I told you already, I don't know!" she almost yelled out in anger. "I just lost it, is it that hard to comprehend?"

Nico ceased her scowl as she saw Maki blushing, her lavender eyes looking slightly down at Nico. She trailed where the younger girl's eyes were looking at and found out that she was looking at the wet clothes that covered her chest. Out of reflex, Nico yelped and put her arms over the place, to avoid anyone from looking. Her cheeks flared up in embarrassment.

"Maki-chan, you pervert." Nico said and she frowned.

"W-What?! I –I wasn't looking at where you thought I was looking at!" Maki quickly whipped her head back to have her eyes on the road and began driving.

What awaited both of them after that was a quiet and awkward car ride to Maki's house.

* * *

As soon as Maki turned into the right and drove onward, Nico was met with a large gate that towered over the car. The gates automatically swung open as soon as the car was nearby, and what awaited her beyond those gates were a large and grandiose house which can probably be described as a 'mansion'. Nico's eyes widened and her mouth was left agape.

"So you really are _that_ rich…" Nico stated, not expecting a response.

"Well, yeah, my parents own a large pharmaceutical company and my family are practically made up of doctors," Maki said without looking at Nico. "And you think _this_ is big? Wait until you see my parents' house."

The car came to an unexpected halt as Maki parked it in the garage that had another automatic entrance. The floor was a brilliant glossy white, with rows and rows of light on the ceiling brightening the entire garage.

_This garage is almost the size of my apartment…_ The raven hair girl thought to herself

"Well what are you doing daydreaming in the car? You should be taking a shower."

"Okay, okay, geez!"

The two girls made their way to the guest rooms, to which Nico gasped at the amount of rooms there were. The younger girl's house didn't have one, but three guest rooms. Who even needs that many guest rooms? Every room apparently had an en suite and an extremely comfortable queen sized bed to sleep in. In short, Nico was in heaven.

_If only I could live here every day. Living with Maki would be great, _she thought to herself. Not long before that, she blushed crimson as she realized what she had just thought in her head. _Of course, not like _that. _I don't mean like going out with her, but living here in general. Yeah, that's right,_ she thought, solidly reassuring herself that she didn't like Maki like _that_… probably.

"Here are your towels and some spare clothes," Maki handed over a pile of clothes accompanied with two towels of varying sizes.

"Thanks. Now get out before you try to sneak a peek at Nico-ni's amazing body again!" she teased the girl.

"I- What?! N-No!" Maki blushed a crimson red and decided to leave the guest room, not knowing what to say as she turned into a blubbering idiot.

Nico smirked before she went to the bathroom to take a shower.

* * *

Now around 10 PM, the rain didn't seem to be letting up. The rain continued to patter down the roof, loud as ever. Luckily for Nico, there was a widescreen television in her room. She walked around the room to find the remote. Turning on the television, she was met with a middle aged news reporter.

"… A Pacific storm has swept the country in recent hours, with wind speed peaking at 110 kilometers per second recorded at Tokyo." Nico's ruby eyes went wide with surprise. "Please do not attempt to leave the building until the storm calms down overall. The storm is said to be gone by the early hours of tomorrow's morning."

_Wait a second… Does that mean I'll have to… "_S-Stay for the night?!" Nico shouted out at the very end. _I've got to tell Maki-chan…_

Nico opened the door and walked out into the hall. She looked to the left, and then to the right. Both sides of the hall didn't seem to end. She decided to walk left, hoping that it was the right way and that she would find Maki in what she thought was an endless maze.

She had walked for a while now, and she had found no significant changes that would lead her to Maki. The doors and hall looked exactly the same as when she came out of her room. Great. She was lost in a house. A big house.

Somewhere in the distance, Nico could hear a soft melody played by a piano. Maybe if she followed where the source of the music was, she would be able to find Maki. She kept walking forward, hoping to close in on the source of the harmonious tune and also the red haired girl. It seemingly got louder and louder, and Nico stopped walking. With her head turned to a plain white door embedded with golden decorations at the side, she twisted the door knob as quiet as she could, as if she were intruding on someone.

As soon as she opened the door, she heard the song played on piano in full and a certain red head humming along to the tune. Again, she saw Maki's elegance as she played the piano with a fervent rhythm. Her piano playing filled the entire room with a pleasant echo. Too into her playing, Maki didn't notice the raven haired girl that entered the room until she ended the song and took off the earphones on her head.

"W-When did you get here!" Maki half shouted and questioned Nico.

"…Not too long," Nico lied for some reason. "I'm gonna have to stay for the night."

"Why?" Maki lifted a brow in question.

"There's a storm, didn't you hear, idiot?"

"Well, maybe I was too busy, uh, I don't know," Maki folded her arms. "Playing the piano?" Maki pouted angrily at Nico, to which the older girl thought was adorable.

"Whatever," she huffed out. "Anyways, teach me how to play the piano."

"W-Why?" Maki asked suspiciously.

"Because why not? Now, come on, teach me, Maki-senpai~" Nico said jokingly as she sat beside Maki on the piano's wide stool.

"S-Stop, don't call me that!" she said embarrassingly. "O-Okay," she said, having slightly regained her composure. "Body posture is very important for piano playing." She stood up to give Nico the entire stool to sit on. Nico was glad that she had gotten off, she was beginning to feel flustered from the close contact of their shoulders.

"Now… Don't slump and have your body straight." Maki told Nico, to which she straightened her body. "Shoulders should be relaxed though."

"When are we going to get to do some real piano playing?" Nico asked, impatient.

"Shush, you need to have a good body posture," Maki replied back nonchalantly. "Show me how you would place your fingers on the chords."

Nico gingerly splayed her fingers out, hovering over the chords.

"No, no, no," Maki said. She stood behind, bending over a bit until she was near Nico's shoulder. "Your fingers should kinda be like this, curved." She brought her hands to Nico's and tried to curve them for her.

Immediately after the younger girl's hands held hers, Nico felt a familiar shock and her entire body tensed up as she felt an oncoming heat rising to her face. Heart pounding madly in her chest, she tried to calm herself down. After all, she was _only_ just touching her hand. Whatever the older girl thought to calm herself down didn't seem to be working as the heat in her face continued to grow hotter.

Maki sensed how quiet Nico was for the entire thing. With her hands still holding Nico's she locked eye contact with her crimson eyes.

"You okay, Nico-chan?" she asked.

A few seconds passed until she noticed why Nico was practically glowing red. Her own amethyst eyes darted to her hands that were holding Nico's and looked into Nico's eyes again. She basically jumped up, embarrassed. She averted her gaze to anywhere but Nico as Maki felt her face flare up to turn into a brilliant red.

"M-Maybe I should um," Maki awkwardly stuttered, still embarrassed, "Go to s-sleep now… It's–It's getting kind of late now and you pro-probably had a long day. Goodnight!" Maki shouted out, dashing out of the piano room with the door slamming afterwards.

"G-Good… Night." Nico whispered out to no-one in particular, now that the red head was out of sight and not seen.

Having made her way back to her own room (surprisingly in a short amount of time), Nico buried herself in silken duvets and a cozy blanket. Her last thought before she fell into an unconsciousness was how she was an idiot. So it was true, after all. She had actually fallen for Maki Nishikino.

* * *

**A/N: I'm very sorry for this super late update! Looking back at the last update, I haven't uploaded a new chapter in almost 2 weeks, again, I'm sorry! I had a very busy week this week, so I had no time to write or even take time to go on the computer... This chapter is by far the longest chapter, my chapters are roughly 2k, but this one is a good ol' 2.5k, so I hope that makes up for it just a tiiiny bit. Also, finally a bit of fluff?! A miracle for the author!**

**I want to thank you for making this the fourth most followed fanfiction on the Love Live! Section, I had never expected that much favs, follows and reviews. Keep it up! You guys are my motivation. I want to also thank you for getting this story to over 2k views!**

**Finally, I hope my author's notes don't bore you, so I'll try my best to keep them short. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, as well. I'll try my best not to update so late again. Until the next update, goodbye!**


	7. Fourth Floor, Second Last Door

The first sign that indicated it was morning was the blinding ray of light that just so happened to land right on Nico's face. In response, the pig tailed girl released a tired groan, with sleep still in her brain. Her eyes, which were already closed, scrunched tightly as if to help shield her from the bright light. Only then when she lazily turned her back against the light did she find refuge from the sun's ray.

Not yet awake, and not yet asleep, Nico laid still in her bed, recounting the events from the past day. How Maki's lavender eyes bored into hers, how the younger girl's hands were so soft from the touch, how heated her face had become just from contact. Truth in all, it really did feel like some short of vivid dream for Nico; but it wasn't.

Upon the realization that she had actually fallen for that crimson haired girl, mixed in with confused thoughts about her relationship status with Rin, she had no idea what to do now. Would she confess? Would she just continue being her friend? Nico was at unrest with those recent thoughts swimming in her head; ironically, she was resting in her bed as she was in pensive thoughts.

She shook her head as she blushed deeply. Confessing? No way in hell. Or heaven. As far as she was concerned, Nico was absolutely sure she would be rejected. Another reason would be that she didn't know if Maki was… interested in girls. If Maki and Rin were indeed _just_ best friends, then she would be certain that Maki was 'straight', to her dismay. _Maybe it's not the best time to be thinking about this,_ Nico had thought to herself.

Deciding that she didn't want to laze around in her bed for any longer, Nico forced herself up with strained attempts at first, her body feeling heavier than normal. Her eyes darted to the same light source that woke her up. The ray, bright and pure, pierced through the room illuminating various specks of dust in the air. It was a calming atmosphere, with the birds that chirped softly outside, another sign that morning came.

She slept soundly last night, her body not used to the surprisingly comfortable accommodation that was one of Maki's guest bed rooms. She made a mental note to thank the red head for her hospitality later. She had had enough hours of sleep, if she recalled correctly she went to bed after… an extremely short piano lesson with Maki. Again, her face had flared up as she quickly processed the events again.

As soon as she had willed her blush away, she stood up from the bed and stretched a bit, letting her mind wander as it pleased for a few seconds. She opened the curtains of the largest window, revealing woodland in the view. She looked up to the sky; any possible sign of the storm was now gone, as a soft blue hid from behind puffy white clouds. All in all, it was a nice day.

She got herself ready for the day as she headed for the washroom. Cupping a certain amount of water in her small hands, she splashed it against her face, its coldness instantly waking her up fully. As soon as she had dried off, she looked into the mirror, a familiar figure reflected back at her. She began combing her hair, humming a simply tune in the midst of it.

* * *

After walking through a maze that Maki calls her house, Nico found her way to the kitchen, with its walls and floors having a simple design; white colors and some light and warm colors to match. With all its contents in a neat assortment, Nico could only assume that Maki was a… _neat freak._ She groaned inwardly, if Maki ever saw _her_ own apartment's mess, she would probably rip the older girl in half for her untidiness. She shivered at the thought and locked it up deep into the deep depths of her mind. It was probably best to tidy her entire belongings before letting the red head into her home anytime soon.

The morning was quiet, with no signs of any piano playing. Only occasional chirps and the nearby trees having their leaves rustled gently by the wind, there was no sound whatsoever. Nice and quiet, but too quiet. Nico found it safe to assume that the owner of this house was still asleep.

She pulled the sleeves of her pajamas shirt up, revealing slender forearms. As if out of no where, the black haired girl pulled out a hair band and bunched her dark tresses to make a small ponytail. After that was done, she found an apron hanging onto a door and decided to wear it. With some difficulty in tying the strings together at the back, she came upon the realization that the apron was slightly too large for her petite frame. She huffed out slightly angrily, hating to be reminded of her form.

Getting to work, she gingerly brought out pots and pans from clearly labelled drawers, keeping careful watch to avoid making a loud noise. She placed them on the counter nearby the cooker as she spotted the ingredients she needed for the breakfast she was about to make. Popping in a few pieces of bread into the toaster, she got ready for the_ real_ cooking. With a swipe to the forehead, she grinned to herself.

She chopped the vegetables into fine slices swiftly as her expertise of cooking came into play. All in a flurry, Nico went to and fro, back and forth from all corners of the kitchen, occupied with her cooking and certainly too into it. With one of the dishes still boiling in the pot, she got the toast out of the toaster and divided them into plates with quick hands.

The dining room was – thankfully, Nico thought – conveniently right beside the kitchen. She placed the food filled plates onto the table carefully, so as to not clatter the plates. Half dashing, half walking back to the kitchen, she found that the final dish was done. She expertly poured the contents into two bowls, dividing the amount almost evenly. Done, she was done, everything was done.

With a few more pots and pans to clean up, as soon as she had finished she brought the last dishes to the oak table that already had food placed unto it. She gave herself a few beats to take in what she had just done as she put her hands to her hips. With a content sigh, she sat down on a nearby seat.

As if on cue, a little scuffle was heard from the corner of the room.

"Ah, you're finally here. Good morning." Nico couldn't help but blush faintly when she remembered what happened last night…

Maki stood still at the door whilst folding her arms, impressed with what she had seen with her own eyes.

"N-Nico-chan? Did you do this?" she asked.

"Well who else is here, huh?" Nico gave a smug smile.

Deep on the inside, Nico's eyes focused on Maki's reactions. Feeling satisfied, she was overjoyed that she had managed to impress Maki. Maki now sat across from her, keeping quiet.

"Well? You gonna eat or not?"

Maki ceased her state of reverie, snapping her head up to look back at Nico.

"Y-Yeah! Let's… let's eat!"

Not holding back her need for food, Nico began to eat. It was quiet, again.

"Wow… This miso soup is… r-really good," Maki said to Nico, who took it like well deserved praise.

"Of course it is! Who do you think I am!"

"And _this_ is also really good too…" she mostly muttered to herself as she helped herself to Nico's breakfast.

Although the praise was something that Nico liked, too much praise from a certain red head did cause her to get a tad bit flustered. During the rest of the breakfast, Nico kept quiet as a pink lightly dusted across her cheeks.

Once breakfast was all consumed, the two girls continued staying seated in contentment.

"Th-Thanks. For the breakfast I mean."

She realized the atmosphere was more or less awkward yet again, as certain events from last night lingered in the duo's minds.

"It's no problem, really. I have to make it up to you for staying over at your place, after all."

"I told you already, it's f-fine," the younger girl averted her eyes shyly.

Nico, observant as she was, noticed how Maki fidgeted and shifted around uncomfortably in her own seat. She smiled coyly to herself.

"Is there something you're not telling me, hm?" she asked mockingly in a sing-song voice.

The girl in question felt her face heat up as she shook her head.

"Don't be shy," Nico edged her face closer to hers, placing her palms on the table in the process. "C'mon, you can tell your Nico-senpai anything~"

Maki looked at anywhere but Nico profusely as she blushed furiously after she decided to speak.

"I! –It's just that..." she started to twirl the ends of her hair in the midst of her sentence. "… It's been a long time since I had friends who would come to stay overnight… A-Also stop getting so close to me!"

And with that, Maki's hands instinctively pushed Nico's shoulders back to seize back her own personal space.

"Aw! Adorable Maki-chan is all shy now~" Nico teased, much to the embarrassment of the other girl.

Their conversation was abruptly interrupted by a constant ringing from outside the depths of the hall; it was probably the phone. Maki stood up from her chair as her head snapped to the door.

"I have to take that call, be right back," she said as she hurriedly walked out of the door.

Acknowledging her words, Nico nodded silently. She slumped back in the chair again as she looked around while pondering.

Roughly five minutes had passed since Maki had left, and now the twin-tailed girl slumped lazily on the chair with telltale signs of boredom. She huffed out a breath. What to do, what to do? Palming the side of her face with her right hand, she looked over at a corner of the room.

Upon noticing a clock in the corner of the room, her ruby eyes registered what time it was. 10:13 AM. Maybe it would be a good idea to leave and try to get her house keys back. Silently to herself, she thanked whatever god was out there that she didn't have to work today.

Since she had enough time, Nico figured that devising some sort of plan for the day would be most ideal. If she didn't have work today, this meant that she would have the day for herself normally. The thought of visiting Nozomi was something that drifted around in her mind occasionally. With the fact that Nozomi had her spare house key, she would have to go over there sometime soon. Luckily, she had kept her phone in the pocket of her trousers.

She took it out and decided to make a quick call to a certain violet haired girl, hoping for her to pick up fairly soon.

* * *

Nico rested her forehead on the table as she splayed her arms in front of her, bored out of her mind. She had been like this for what felt like a good twenty minutes.

A click from the door, and it swung open, revealing Maki on the other side.

"…Sorry. My father called," Maki said.

"Maaaaaaaaaki-chaaaaaaan," Nico called out, not bothering to look at the red head.

"W-What?" she asked, slightly taken aback from the shorter girl's whining.

Something incoherent came from the shorter girl's mouth.

"...What? I can't hear you." Maki began to get irritated.

With her head still lying on the table, she spoke something inaudible again, albeit louder this time.

"For the last time, I can't hear you! Stop laying down on the table."

Nico snapped her head up, her temper snapped also in the process. She narrowed her eyes as she spoke (although shouted would be a more suitable word).

"I want you to take me!"

Almost immediately, Maki's face became as red as her crimson hair. With a look of disbelief, she began to stutter madly. Wild thoughts ran through her head almost rapidly as she began to think about what Nico had just said to her.

"Wait, w-w-what! T-Take you?!"

"Yes, take me." Nico answered her back in all seriousness. "Take me to my friend's house."

"…"

"Maki-chan?" she called out to her, confused.

"W-Why did you say it like that, you idiot!" she exclaimed back to the older girl, her face becoming insanely hot.

"Say it like what?"

"Never m-mind! Ugh," Maki grunted, as she twisted the ends of her ruby tresses, all the while averting her gaze from Nico who was still sitting down on the chair.

"No, _do_ tell me," the raven haired girl requested with a hint of frustration in her voice.

"It's nothing, okay!" Maki replied back with an equal amount of frustration. "Just… just tell me where I need to take you to," she said, just before breathing out a silent sigh.

* * *

Several long minutes later, the car screeched to a halt.

"It's here right?"

"Yes," Nico said. "Thanks for the ride."

She reached for the handle of the car.

"Wait!"

Feeling a hand pull on the sleeve of her arm, Nico whipped her head back to face Maki who didn't exactly meet her gaze. Seeing that the younger girl had something she wanted to say, she kept quiet as she waited for her to speak.

"Um…" Maki felt her cheeks flush a soft red. "T-Theres… There's a festival coming up soon."

Nico tilted her head. "…And?"

"And… I wanted to know if you... w-wanted to come to the festival with me…" by the end of her sentence, she was speaking in a whisper.

"Look. Just send me an email about the details. You have my number right? I have to go real quick, and I don't think we'll have enough time to talk about this." Nico replied back nonchalantly. "Okay, bye," and she ended with that.

"Bye."

Shortly after their goodbyes, Maki drove off, the engine of the car revving away. Now in front of the pig tailed girl was an apartment complex. She took her time going up the stairs that she was oh so familiar with, having walking up them for such a long time. The fourth floor, second last door to the left side was where she was headed for.

Upon finding the correct apartment, her heart raced with excitement as she stood in front of its entrance. Buzzing the doorbell, she waited with childish giddiness. The door in front of her was finally unlocked with a soft click, and she was welcomed with a familiar face that she missed dearly.

* * *

**A/N: Hello again! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I certainly had fun writing it. Slightly late update but this is the best that I can do, seeing that I've been working for the past week almost every day. Also, that little thing in the middle, was that fluff? I don't even know what that was, but I just thought to myself, 'I need to see flustered Maki,' and there she was.**

**Did you guys know that this story is now currently the****_ third_**** most followed story?! Thank you all for reading my AU! I honestly couldn't be here without you guys. I'm just below one of my personal favorites too, which is amazing. Thank you guys again. Feedback is appreciated! All the follows, reviews and favs are basically motivation, it tells me that people are actually interested in my fanfic!**

**Also, a reply to "meh nu name": I'm sorry about that, I don't know a thing about how your hands should be when playing piano! Thank you for correcting my mistake.**

**I'm currently very tired as of writing this, I apologize for any mistakes... I quickly edited the entire thing.**

**I hope you have a great day or night, and until the next update goodbye!**


	8. Lunch Musings

The door opened after the soft click, revealing the person who had opened it. Her ruby eyes registered who it was and she felt at ease. She couldn't help but grin at the person.

"Nozomi."

Nico's eyes scanned Nozomi. She had dark violet hair that was let free out its usual ties, with dazzling emerald eyes that complemented her other features. What she was wearing was a bit too casual for Nico's liking.

Ever since becoming friends with Nozomi after being acquainted through Eli in their first year at university, Nico had always kept quiet about what Nozomi and Eli wore. After getting closer and closer, they became best friends. Once that had happened, Nico had constantly fussed about what they wore and complained about their mediocre tastes in clothing. She remembered the time where she spent an entire day shopping with the other two girls buying clothes that Nico thought was suitable, and most importantly, looked _appealing_ on them.

"Nico-chi! Come in," the taller girl replied back as she returned a smile to Nico.

After Nico entered the apartment door, she looked around to see if there were any major changes. As expected of Nozomi, it was a neat and tidy abode, with occasional pictures of friends placed here and there. Said girl followed Nico behind as she walked into the living room.

Her eyes made their way to the couch and found that Eli sat snugly on it whilst watching some kind of wacky cartoon on the television placed not too far from the coffee table. Nico then looked at what was currently being shown on the television. Depictions of some sort of humanoid cat was on the screen, seemingly setting a trap of some sort.

"Ah, Nico. Why don't you sit down?"

Nico, followed by Nozomi, sat down on the couch, their eyes traveling to the screen in front of them.

"Never knew you were the type to watch silly kids' cartoons," Nico remarked jokingly.

"I didn't either. There's nothing good on TV right now, though."

"Believe me Nico-chi, but Eli-chi surprisingly has a childish side to her underneath all that air of maturity," Nozomi interjected, to which Eli snapped her head to face her.

"N-Nozomi!" she called out, embarrassed.

Nico and Nozomi laughed at Eli's expense.

They then continued to watch the cartoon, content with a peaceful silence that loomed over them. Nico felt at home, she felt like _this_ was where she belonged. She had missed just spending time with Nozomi and Eli like this. Why did everything have to change so quickly?

"So…" Nozomi grinned mischievously, making Nico fear for the worst. "I heard you have someone you like."

Panic flashed across Nico's face, her eyes began to widen as she looked over at Eli. "Eli… Don't tell me you told her…"

"It doesn't hurt to tell, Nico, come on." Eli said. "Plus, you never told me _not_ to tell her, right?"

Nico groaned inwardly, now she was in for it. She supposed this was considered payback, revenge, or even karma after all the teasing she had done to Eli for the past year once she realized that she had feelings for a certain spiritual girl.

"Say, Nico-chi," Nozomi broke Nico's train of thought as she spoke. "Didn't you say that no-one was good enough for you last year?"

"T-That was last year, okay! A lot of things change in a year…"

"Now, fill me in on the details on who this person is?" she inquired.

"You don't need to know any more," Nico hastily replied back. "How about we talk about where we're meeting up with Honoka for lunch?" She looked to Eli for support, but the blonde kept quiet and continued watching television. _Great_.

"How about no," Nozomi said with a glint in her eyes. "Now tell me all about this person."

Nico, irked, decided to ignore her questions with an angry pout. It wasn't until Nozomi moved her hands closer and closer to Nico that the twin tailed girl decided to answer her back.

"Okay, okay, stop!"

Nozomi smiled as she closed her eyes, knowing full well how to force the information out of the smaller girl. Eli watched the entire thing, quietly giggling at her friends.

"I met her while working and–"

"Oh my, Nico-chi. So you like a _girl?"_ Nozomi acted surprised.

"It – it doesn't m-matter, okay!"

"And what is this girl's name?"

Nico, embarrassed, looked down at her hands that were currently resting on her lap.

"M-Maki Nishikino."

"Nishikino?" the spiritual girl put a finger to her bottom lip. "Is she by any chance the daughter of… the owners of Nishikino Pharmaceutical Industries?"

Eli, now interested in the conversation happening adjacent to her, tilted her head to look at the other two. "Wouldn't that mean she's an heiress?"

"Nico-chi, you've really found a very interesting girl."

Nico blushed again, her embarrassment making her face surge with heat. Eli and Nozomi laughed at Nico, having not seen this side of her before. Nico coughed into her hand, trying her best to hide any signs of embarrassment.

"Oh y-yeah, I need to get the spare house key from you."

"Oh? What happened to your one?"

"Lost it sometime yesterday."

"…Ah. Wait, so if you lost it yesterday, where did you spend the night?" the violet haired girl asked, brimming with curiosity. Before Nico had time to answer, a light bulb went off in Nozomi's head. "Oh~ So you spent the night with Maki-chan? How bold!"

"N-Nozomi!" was all that Nico could utter out as her face turned into a brilliant bright red.

* * *

With Eli driving and Nozomi in the front seat beside her, Nico sat at the backseats of the car. She felt as if she was… a child going on a road trip with her parents. Although Nico complained, she never actually minded sitting at the back. She just hated it when Nozomi compared her to a child.

The ride to their destination was fairly quick, there was hardly any traffic on this quiet Saturday noon. The blonde Russian parked the car beside the restaurant, and with that, the three girls exited the car's interior.

They were now at an old restaurant owned by locals. Although it was more of a traditional Japanese restaurant, it was still a popular food place for people to go to, both young and old. The three had always been coming to this restaurant ever since their second year. They had gone to this place so many times that surely enough, they became acquainted with the people that worked there. The three third years made their way into the restaurant and made small talk with the workers as they were located to a nearby table.

"Ah… Honoka sent me an email. Apparently a few underclassmen will be joining us too. She said she'll be a tad late too."

Nozomi hummed in acknowledgement, while Nico heaved out a sigh.

"Typical Honoka."

A waiter came and served them glasses of water, and then put several menus on the table. Taking a sip of water, Nico found herself estimating how long would it take for Honoka and company to come here.

Several long minutes passed as the three girls sat relaxed. At the corner of her eye, Nico saw the door opening, revealing a grumpy Umi looking back at Honoka. Umi, responsible as she was, walked over to their table to apologize.

"Sorry. _Honoka_," she spat out Honoka's name, "Got mixed up in her directions. Instead of coming here, we made it to an entirely different restaurant."

On cue, Kotori and a guilty looking brunette sat down at the table. Rubbing the back of her neck, she smiled sheepishly. "Aheheh…"

"Kayo-chin hurry up, Rin's hungry, nya!" a ginger haired girl walked up to the table dragging another brunette with her. Nico widened her eyes. _Oh no…_ she thought.

"Rin, calm down," Maki said as she twi– _wait, Maki?! No one told me that Maki would be coming!_ In a panicked state, she turned her head fully towards the door, making sure that she wasn't daydreaming or something. Right in front of her was the red head, curling her fingers around her crimson locks. No, she definitely wasn't daydreaming.

Honoka now jolted up from her seat and walked over to the other brunette, putting an arm over her shoulder. "This girl here," Honoka pointed her thumb towards her, as if it wasn't obvious enough that she was talking about her. "Is my underclassman."

"U-Um… My name is H-Hanayo Koizumi." The girl, whose name was Hanayo bowed her head down shyly as she sat on a seat beside Rin and Maki.

"No need to be so formal," Eli waved her hand. "We're all friends here."

Honoka then explained to them how she had met Hanayo. Honoka had been studying with Kotori and Umi outside the campus. As expected of Umi, she was strict and denied Honoka's request for a snack unless she finished her homework and studied for a good while. Hanayo, who was sitting on a bench with Rin, was eating her lunch from a bento box. When Honoka walked past Hanayo, the younger girl could see how famished the poor upperclassman was, and offered her a part of her lunch.

All the third years introduced themselves to the underclassmen and_ Maki_. Nico had introduced herself to Hanayo, and then hastily introduced herself to Rin, who she was still wary of, for reasons unknown. She decided she didn't need to greet Maki, seeing that they knew each other already. She stole a few glances at Maki here and then, tensing up every time their eyes met.

All the girls now made small talk with each other afterwards as they all ordered their meals.

"So, Maki-chan, I've heard _a lot _about you from Nico-chi," Nozomi said slyly.

Nico was now embarrassed as a faint blush appeared on her cheeks. In response to this, Maki looked down at the table, nervously playing with the ends of her hair.

"H-Have you now…" she said shyly.

"I've also heard that Nico spent the night at your home? You guys are getting on well fairly quickly, hm?" she remarked in a teasing manner.

Umi, having heard the conversation, blushed a deep red. Whilst that happened, Hanayo put her hands down on the table quite forcefully, whipping her head towards Maki. If Hanayo had been putting up a façade to look like a reserved girl, she had truly fooled Nico. Where did that quiet girl go?

"M-M-Maki-chan! Is this true?!" she asked, absolutely curious and intent on knowing the truth.

Maki felt a heat flush her face as she fidgeted with her hair. "…Y-Ye–"

"But you two… Y-You two are girls!"

"I-It wasn't like that!"

The two girls in question realized that they both answered in unison. Nico looked at Maki, and she felt her heart hammering in her chest. Deciding that averting her gaze would be for the best, she did so.

"But Rin thinks that love is love, so it doesn't matter, nya!"

"R-Rin!" Maki shouted out, her head face steaming.

With lunch being served soon after that, the girls dug into their bento without further ado. No matter how many times Nico had been to this restaurant, she could never get enough of their food. Unfortunately, even with the food she still couldn't forget that previous misunderstanding about her and Maki. Still feeling flustered from the whole ordeal, she refused to look at Maki. She swore to herself that she would get back at Nozomi, seeing that the violet haired girl teased her so much in such a small amount of time.

* * *

Maki excused herself to go take an incoming call on her phone outside the restaurant, while everyone else continued talking. About five minutes later, Nico had got up from her seat to go to the washrooms. At least this time she wouldn't be lost trying to find it, unlike one time ago…

After going to the washrooms, she decided to go outside to find Maki and hopefully apologize for Nozomi's behavior. Upon opening the door, she found Maki ending a call on her phone.

"Maki-chan, I-I'm sorry for what happened earlier," Nico could clearly recalled what happened and blushed. "Nozomi normally teases people like that."

"No, it's okay… I-"

"Maki!" a girl abruptly interrupted the younger girl.

"A-Anju?" she questioned.

The girl, whose name was probably Anju, enveloped Maki in tight embrace. "Oh, it's been so long!"

Nico felt her chest tightening at what she saw, words stuck in her throat.

"Oh, Nico-chan, this is Anju. She's a close friend," Nico knew what she felt now, she was _jealous._ "My parents are on good terms with her parents, since they're business partners. Because of that, we've met a lot of times before when we were younger," Maki explained.

Nico smiled weakly. "I… see."

Anju was around the same height as Maki, albeit slightly shorter. With dark strawberry blonde hair, she had soft lavender eyes and a beautiful smile. She looked somewhat like a princess from a fairy tale. Of course, she wasn't as pretty as Maki though, in Nico's opinion. Their eyes were of the same color, but there was something about Maki's that Nico thought was mesmerizing.

Anju happily stuck her out hand towards Nico, awaiting an amiable handshake. "Anju Yuuki, nice to meet you."

They locked in eye contact and Nico could swear there was some sort of sly glint in her eyes.

"Likewise. I'm Nico Yazawa."

For some reason, the air was somewhat tense, and Anju found it her cue to leave.

"I think I'll be going now, I'll talk to you later!~" Again, Anju proceeded to hug Maki again.

"Okay, Anju."

Now with Anju gone, Nico figured it was a good enough time to talk to Maki.

"So," Nico played with her fingers. "About the festival…"

"It's next Saturday," she began, "But I guess you didn't even bother to check that email I sent you…"

"What's with your attitude?"

"_What _attitude?" Maki snapped back, her voice a tad uneven.

"See! That's what I'm talking about! Why are you like this to me, but not to other people, I don't get it?"

Maki stopped twirling her hair. "T-This is how I normally act, idiot!"

The door to the restaurant swung open and the two stopped their bickering mid-sentence to look over.

"Hey guys!" Honoka greeted them. "Why're you guys out here?"

"We needed… fresh air."

Honoka nodded with a knowing smile, "I see, I see."

"Well now, I think it's time for us to leave." Eli announced to the other girls.

"Hold up, Eli-chan, I need to give Nozomi-chan her notes back!" Honoka said as she clumsily searched for the papers. "Here you go, Nozomi-chan. Also, sorry about that small coffee stain."

"It's no problem. I'll talk to you girls later."

The girls all gave their goodbyes and left their separate ways in trios. Nico was now in a sour mood, after what had just happened between her and Maki. What more, Honoka interrupted them, which annoyed her even further.

Nico got into the car quietly.

"Nico-chi, you're acting like a sulking child."

The raven haired girl gave an angered "Hmph!" making the other two third years smile at how she was acting.

Now on the road, Nico felt her phone vibrate in her bag. She saw who was calling; Maki. Conflicted, she decided whether or not to answer. Reluctantly, she answered the call.

"What?"

"Nico-chan, u-um…" she noticed that the girl on the other line was stuttering nervously. "S-Sorry. For what happened earlier. I hope you can make it to the f-festival..." The call was ended, to which Nico thought that it ended too quickly.

Eli gazed into the car mirror to look at Nico. She raised her eyebrow in question. "Who was that?"

"An idiot…" Nico muttered out, trying to hide a smile. It was funny how her mood easily changed from dismal to that of simple happiness from the few words Maki had said to her.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. In my opinion, I feel like it's not as good as the previous chapters I've written... I feel like this is kind of a filler, but I really wanted all the girls to meet up somehow! Also, Anju Yuuki's probably going to be involved in future chapters. I guess it's kind of a little shout out to TriMinakami who wrote the first AnjuMaki fanfic in the section (which you should totally read!). Before that fanfic I had never imagined that pairing. I also feel sort of bad for not developing Nico and Maki's relationship into a romantic one quicker. Author's a sucker for eventual romances. **

**Have a great day, and I'll see you in the next chapter!**


	9. Festival Fun

The day of the festival came faster than expected, which could be considered a good thing for Nico. If she remembered what Maki's text said correctly, it was the Hinamatsuri Festival, or known as Girls' Day for some older locals. She was excited since she had never been to a festival such as this and had only heard about it, and also because she would be able to spend time with a certain person.

Now that she thought about it, the ruby-eyed girl hadn't seen Maki for quite a while, it had been roughly a week, if Nico calculated correctly. She couldn't help but remember the glint in Anju's eyes, there was just something that made her suspicious of her. There was just something; _something, _that made the twin-tailed girl feel that way. It may have been the way the Anju's eyes bored into hers whilst giving an overly sweet smile. Or maybe the way that the air quickly became thickened with tension after greeting each other. Whatever it was, Nico didn't like it. Pressing her lips into a line, she pondered whether or not she was being paranoid.

A familiar clanking of a plate stopped her train of thoughts, bringing her back to what she was doing. Dishes. She had been washing dishes for the past few minutes, after eating lunch by herself in her small apartment that was a bit too quiet for her own liking, not that she would openly complain about. She knew that complaining wouldn't help and it's not even likely that anyone would begin to live with her, seeing that there was only one bed. Unless…

Nico found herself blushing faintly at a certain thought that came into her head. No no no, as if _that_ would happen, even in an alternative universe.

Putting away the dishes in a quick fashion, she found herself with nothing to do. It was a day where Nico could laze around for a while during the afternoon. Well, asides from the huge amounts of homework she had procrastinated in doing, she had nothing to do. She figured that she could probably pull off an all-nighter and finish all of the homework all in one night sometime soon before they're due.

She let out a stifled yawn. Sleeping in was surely something that she had hoped she could do more than often. A familiar and overused ringtone of a mobile phone blasted out, surprising the owner who had jolted up. She cleared her throat, embarrassed, but glad that no-one saw, especially the one who was currently calling her right now.

"H-Hello Nozomi?" she said, voice uneven.

"Nico-chi, hello," said girl greeted her. "You don't have a shift today at the café, yes?"

Nico hummed, confirming what the other girl stated. "And? What about it?"

"Ah, great! We don't have enough people working at the shrine today, and we're going to need a few more helpers, since we'll be quite busy. So…" she trailed off.

She knew where Nozomi was going and wondered if she could help. She did –surprisingly – have plans for today and wondered if she would be able to help out Nozomi. Considering that Nozomi was a close friend, she supposed that maybe she could help out.

"…You are one troublesome friend."

"I know." Nozomi giggled softly on the other line.

"When do I have to be at the shrine?"

"About four o'clock? Let's just say four thirty. I'll see you there Nico-chi."

The two quickly ended their phone call, having nothing more to say or add to the conversation. She swiftly sent a text to Maki shortly afterwards, notifying her that she would have to be working at the shrine. Luckily enough, the festival was going to be held at the same shrine and going there was only a short walks away.

Nico had been there plenty of times over the past year, with Nozomi kindly volunteering to helping out in the shrine. There had also been those times where the lavender haired girl would drag Eli and Nico into volunteering as well, claiming that their staff was underhanded, but in all earnest the poor girl was probably just lonely and wanted to spend more time with her friends. Nico had always complained about the work, but she had to admit, she enjoyed the time she had with the other two girls.

Making her way to the shrine, she was met with a few people already setting up different types of stands. Several food stands, mask stands and other stands that she couldn't figure out what they were for. It had brought her a sense of nostalgia, seeing that it had been a while since she had last been to a festival. Fond memories of going to festivals with her parents and younger siblings came in mind. It had been to long since she had been to one outside of work.

She walked around idly, not able to find Nozomi. Eli wasn't in sight either. Of course, if Nozomi had brought Nico along that would mean Eli would be coming too, without a doubt.

"Nico-chi, there you are! Over here." The familiar voice called out to her behind a shed.

She walked over to see Nozomi who was already dressed in her full miko attire, and Eli who was just putting on a red ribbon onto her hair. Nozomi handed a set of clothes to the raven haired girl, to which she accepted.

"You can go change in these."

Nico did so in the changing rooms, and was satisfied with the miko uniform. After wearing the haori, she had found out that it was a bit too large for her small frame. "Nozomi?"

"Hm?"

"The haori is the smallest size, right?"

"Yes."

Nico huffed out a breath angrily. "It's still too big for me."

"Maybe you're shrinking then," Nozomi remarked, which only caused Nico to get even angrier.

A few hours had passed, and the festival was in full spirits. Nozomi was right about one thing; it was going to be busy today. With the several tasks and odd jobs the girls were required to do, they barely had time to even talk or even take a break as they went virtually everywhere.

Fortunately for the girls, they had completed almost all the tasks and decided that taking a break would be most favorable. They leaned contently against the wall of a shed, breathing out a sigh. Nico looked up, noticing the already dusking sky. She checked for any texts on her phone and noticed that she had one unread from Maki.

'_Are you done working yet? I'm at the festival,' _was what it had said.

Nico texted the redhead back, '_No, not yet, sorry.'_

"You know Nico-chi, if you really want to go and spend some time with your girlfriend, that's perfectly fine, I mean–"

"Wait. You guys are _going out? _Since when!" Eli interrupted, too surprised.

"S-She's not my girlfriend! I already told you that, g-geez!" Nico said back at the two with much embarrassment.

"Tell me what?" Nozomi inquired innocently.

"You know what," Nico retorted back at her, knowing the silly façade Nozomi would put up sometimes just to mess with the twin-tailed girl.

Nozomi and Eli couldn't help but laugh when they noticed how Nico's face had turned scarlet red.

"But anyways," Nico desperately hoped to change topics. "Are you sure? I mean, we still have some tasks to do around the shrine."

"It's fine, Nico, we can handle it from here," Eli assured her confidently.

"Eli-chi just wants to spend some time alone with me," she teased the blonde girl, successfully making her flush red.

"N-No!"

"Then I'll leave you two with the rest of the jobs, okay?"

"Have fun!" Nozomi called out, whilst dragging a flustered Eli to do some more work.

* * *

Nico had changed out of her miko outfit with enthusiasm, and headed out to find Maki, hoping to surprise her. With the sky changing into a dark nights sky, lights around the stands illuminated the paths, giving out a calming aura. Of course, it would be better without all the masses of people, but it was a festival after all.

She walked around the stands one more time, in hope of finding a certain person. She caught a glimpse of the crimson hair that was practically burned into her memory. She could only see a red head bobbing in the sea of people, but she was sure that it was Maki. She squeezed and squirmed through the crowd and eventually made her way to the younger girl, who was facing away from Nico.

She was about to tease the younger girl after she planned to frighten her, but what she wore made Nico stop dead in her tracks. Somehow, the younger girl felt her presence and turned around, making Nico's breath hitch in her throat. Her heart hammered loudly against her chest.

"Nico-chan, you're here finally," Maki said. "How do I l-look?" she asked hesitantly, a heat creeping up her face.

She was wearing a brilliantly designed blue yukata with soft light blue stripes, complemented with various pumpkin and red colored flowers on it. Wrapped around her small waist was the obi, striped red and creamy white. Her hair was also neatly braided, making her look even more adorable.

Nico realized that she had been staring for a bit too long and tried her best to come up with an answer. "You… y-you look, uh… o-okay!" she stuttered out.

To put it simply, she was utterly beautiful.

Maki, confused, stared into Nico's eyes. They had only locked eye contact for mere seconds before Nico found herself averting her gaze down to the ground.

"...So, what do we do at festivals?"

"Wait… don't tell me you've never been to one."

Maki looked away guiltily. "This is my first time going to one…"

"No way!" Nico said, shocked. "One of the most common things at festivals is to go eat at the food stands, let's go!" she pulled the redhead in tow and walked to a nearby stand. Nico had ordered something, and soon enough, she presented a box of takoyaki to Maki.

"Here. Try it, it's good," she said.

"B-But can't you get takoyaki just anywhere?"

"This is special! Eating takoyaki at festival food stands are a must!" she said. "Now c'mon, try some, Maki-chan." Nico said, already picking one into her mouth.

She saw Maki's hesitation in her eyes and held one near her face. "There's nothing wrong with it, relax. Now here, eat it."

Holding the takoyaki dangerously close to the redhead, she had no other choice than to eat it. After finishing it in a few bites, Maki deadpanned at Nico. It would have intimidated Nico more if she weren't blushing.

"Y-You didn't have to feed me…!" she protested as her blush darkened.

The two had ended up at other food stands, with Nico pulling Maki along. With the amount of food they had eaten, they sat at a nearby bench to relax. It was slightly darker than the paths of the stands, since it was a small path in between the others.

"Nico-chan, I'm so full."

"Nonsense. You have to eat more food! We still haven't finished all the foods we can try yet."

"That's a bit too much…"

"If you don't want to eat food, we can always go to do something else."

"Like… what?"

"Let's go get some charms!"

"C-Charms?"

Before she could say anymore, Nico pulled her up and half-ran half-walked to the Shinto shrine. The shrine now had less people now that it was well into the evening. She spotted Nozomi and Eli behind the stand selling charms and decided to walk over to them. The two greeted the other two third years.

"Charms, Nico-chi? What for, I wonder?"

"Shut up… I'm just showing Maki-chan around the place."

"Maki, would you like to try the spinner?" Eli pointed towards the small wooden spinner that was placed on the stand's desk. It was a wooden hexagon that had a hole on one of its faces, with a handle attached to the side. "If you get a colored ball from the spinner, you'll win a charm. But if you get white, you'll get nothing. So how about it?"

Maki nodded, her eyes glued to the spinner. "I-I don't see why not," she tried her best not to act interested, to which Nico saw straight through her act.

"You're such a child, Maki-chan."

"S-Shut up! I'm not!"

She faced the spinner again, this time carefully turning the handle. It spun around and around for what seemed like a good while, but that never discouraged Maki from being disinterested. The spinner had finally stopped spinning, and an orange colored ball came out of the hole.

"We have a winner, congratulations."

Eli put the ball back into the spinner as Nozomi gave out a small flat pouch.

"Here's your charm– it's a relationship charm, put it to good use," Nozomi said to the younger girl, whilst giving Nico a devious smirk. Nico couldn't help but blush.

The two walked away as they gave their goodbyes. To be honest, the raven haired girl couldn't be more than happy to be away from Nozomi when she was in the mood for constant teasing. The two girls now found themselves at a bench again, at a slightly quieter place in the festival. Wherever you were at a festival, it was impossible to get away from all the noise.

"Nico-chan," Maki quickly called out. She could feel the hastiness of her voice.

"W-What?"

"Cotton candy… There's cotton candy at that stand. I-I need to try it out."

"Are you ten years old? Honestly?"

"D-Do you have a problem?" she asked embarrassingly.

"I guess we have no choice but to go then."

Maki walked a faster pace than Nico, trying to hide her excitement in getting cotton candy. Once she had bought it, the two headed back to a bench to sit in, this time near the stands and in the heart of the festival. Nico, bored, looked around to see a familiar face. She had only seen it once, but she was sure it was… Anju? She hoped that said girl wouldn't spot her, but it was too late.

"Maki and Yazawa-san," Nico noticed there was a slight pause before she said her name, or maybe she was just hearing things, "It's nice seeing you two here!"

Maki stood up and gave her a warm hug that the other gladly reciprocated.

"You should have told me you were at the festival, we could have hung out together," Anju said, pretending to pout.

"I was going to," Maki felt a faint warmth on her cheeks, "B-But there were some things I wanted to do by myself…"

"Oh, is that cotton candy you're having right now? Can I have some?"

Not waiting for a proper answer, Anju brought her face closer to the cotton candy, only for it to disappear when Nico took it off Maki's hands. Nico, for unknown reasons didn't like what was happening and instinctively did what she had just done. Maki and Anju both looked at Nico.

"Nico-chan!" Maki looked slightly mad.

"I-I'll go bring her to the stand where she can buy her own…"

"Sounds good to me," Anju said.

The strawberry blonde walked alongside Nico, as she led her to the stand she previously went to. Now out of a certain redhead's earshot, Anju brought her lips closer to Nico's ear.

"You like Maki, don't you?"

As soon as she had asked that, Nico felt herself tensing up. After making a fool of herself, she tried her best to regain a somewhat calm composure. She then scowled slightly at her.

"…What does it matter to you?"

Anju brought a dab of cotton candy to her mouth. After swallowing, she began to speak.

"Because I like her."

"H-Huh?!"

Anju tilted her head and grinned. "Surprised?"

"…" Nico kept quiet as the two continued walking.

"You know, it's hard for Maki to get close to anyone. You probably think that you're close to her and all, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't think of you as anyone of importance."

Nico clenched her fists.

"What makes you think that? You probably don't know anything about Maki-chan."

"We've known each other ever since we were children, Yazawa-san, so I've known her _far_ longer than you have and I've loved her far longer than _you_ have."

An annoyed sound came from Nico's lips as she looked up at Anju.

"I know what Maki is like. So please understand when I say that she'll never love someone like _you_."

Whatever warm traces of happiness that had accumulated in Nico had been gone, as she heard those words come from Anju's mouth. She didn't need to be reminded of how slim a chance of being in a relationship with Maki was. She certainly didn't want to her that from _her,_ out of all the people in the world.

"I'll be going now, so please tell Maki that I'm leaving."

She didn't bother to reply back to the other girl as she felt a sense of dread way down on her heart. Not wanting to have Maki waiting for her, she decided to find her.

"Nico-chan? Where's Anju?" Maki looked up after having finished her candy.

She felt her chest tighten just at _her_ name. "She said that she was going to be leaving. I think I should too."

"A-Already? Okay... I suppose I should be going as well…" the younger girl tried to hide her disappointment as she spoke nonchalantly.

The girls were now at the shrine. It wasn't as loud as before now that there were only a few people left, giving off a quiet and calm ambiance.

"This festival…" Maki trailed off.

"Hm?"

"This festival… i-it wasn't so bad as I thought it would be. T-Thank you." Maki felt a heat surge in her face.

"What are you saying? We're friends, right? You don't have to thank me."

"Friends, r-right."

Nico watched in silence as she saw the crimson haired girl walk on the path away from her, probably waiting to be collected by a servant of some sort. She couldn't help but feel a prickling feeling in her chest. Her eyes stung as tears threatened to drop down onto the ground.

_And friends is all we ever will be._

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed chapter nine. What a chapter, huh? **** Author is incredibly mean for doing this to Nico, Orz, I hope you forgive me.** I apologise for the slightly late update by the way, but this one was slightly longer than all the other chapters, by around 500 words or so.

**By the way, a haori is sort of like a kimono that mikos wear. You should google it if you want to see what it looks like. And also, Maki's yukata... If you want to see that, find her September super rare card, she looks so pretty!**

**Since school has started for me already, please know that I won't have as much time to write this fanfic. That might result in delays in updates, but I'll try my best to update weekly, don't worry! **

**Again, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you in my next update!**


	10. Skipping A Step Or Two

She walked sulkily toward the familiar door, the bounce in her steps gone as she couldn't find the willpower to do so. Her hand, already balled into a small fist, knocked on the apartment door. Perhaps all she needed was some time alone, or perhaps all she needed was to take her mind off things. But one thing she felt like she truly wanted was the comfort of her closest friends.

The door slowly creaked open as the owner of the apartment's emerald orbs bored into hers, quietly observing the shorter girl in front of her.

"What's with the pout, Nico-chi?"

"Please, just let me in," she replied, her tone flat.

Nozomi nodded curtly as she sensed that she was currently amidst a serious thought.

Walking into the living room, Nico was welcomed by Eli who was huddle on the couch with her laptop right beside her. Not caring, Nico let herself sit down beside Eli and huffed out a fake fatigued breath.

"So… are you still not going to tell me about what happened during Hinamatsuri, or are you going to continue sulking here? We know that something definitely happened, seeing that you're in one of those moods again." Eli said knowingly.

"Hey! I am _not_ in any _mood_! I… I just…" Nico trailed off, not knowing how to explain herself.

The two girls nodded, as if they completely understood her non-existent reasoning.

"Well…" Nico brought a pillow close to herself as she began. "Everything was going well, until the end…" With that, the smaller girl of the three told what had happened with Maki, with Anju, with everything that happened that night. She didn't know why, but for some reason she remembered what occurred all in great detail, all down to the way Maki's face showed signs of flushing scarlet as she turned away from her.

When Nico had finished telling the other two girls about the events of the festival, she felt as if the weight on her chest was lifted a bit, albeit not as much as she hoped it would. There was still this nagging feeling that welled inside of her, and she had no idea how to get rid of it.

"Well, Nico-chi…" Nozomi said. "The real question is what are you going to do now?"

"I… I don't know..." she hesitantly answered.

"Well, there's a few solutions to your problem, believe it or not," Nozomi added in afterwards. "You could, well you know, forget about this crush on Maki-chan, or you could _confess to her_. It's simple really, but it's all up to you."

"H-How will I even confess… There are just too many things that I have to consider. What if she isn't interested in girls? I mean, even if she was, there's no way she can like _me,_" she thought of Anju as she said that.

"Don't doubt yourself, Nico. Where did that foolhardy, stubborn girl go?" Eli joked, hoping to cheer the shorter girl up. "Didn't you always metaphorically fight for the things you wanted? Your motivation was the reason as to why you've obtained that scholarship."

"Nico-chi, whatever you decide to do, we're with you one hundred percent of the way."

"…Thank you. But I need some time to think about this."

The girls had stayed in a silence that loomed over them.

"But… what if she says no?"

"Thinking like that is no good, Nico," Eli said back disapprovingly to her friend.

"And even if she said no," Nozomi added, "You know that you tried, at least, right?"

Nico nodded slowly, comprehending her best friends' logic.

"If confessing will affect our friendship… I-I don't think I can do that," Nico said shortly afterwards. "I'd rather just be friends with her than telling her my feelings."

Nozomi smiled softly.

"You're a terrible liar, Nico-chi. It's written all over your face."

Nozomi shifted closer to Nico.

"How about this," she began. "I'll draw out a tarot card and it'll determine your fate."

Nico's eyebrow arched as she felt skeptical.

"Now how do I know you're not going to rig this thing?"

The violet haired girl tutted as she waved a finger around.

"Fate can't be rigged. I'm going to let you pick out a card from the deck."

Nico nodded again, before she was faced with a deck of tarot cards that were slightly worn after years of use. Her fingers slid to the card at the top. Pulling it out, she revealed it to everyone in the room.

"The Star, I see. Good luck." Nozomi mumbled to herself.

* * *

She looked up at the sky and was welcomed with a familiar sight of rain. The sky was gray, and she swore it got darker than before and made her even more miserable on this Monday evening at the café. She sighed as she returned to the counter. The week before last had been a wild one, with Nico at her highest, and just recently, at her lowest. She honestly didn't know what to do anymore.

For the past week or two, she had been constantly avoiding the redhead every time she invited her to somewhere. Nico had come up with from reasonable excuses to silly ones just to avoid her. There was also this one time where Nico had basically ignored Maki when she came into the café just at the end of her shift. Honestly, she just didn't know how to act around her anymore.

_"__I know what Maki is like. So please understand when I say that she'll never love someone like you." _

Her chest tightened at the words that echoed in the back of her mind. Those words had always come up whenever the two had interacted after that night's events.

She figured that she had been in too deep in her thoughts as she accidentally let a mug that she was washing slip out of her grasp and into the sink. It made a loud clatter that invaded the quiet atmosphere, causing Honoka to whip her head towards the twin-tailed girl.

"You okay, Nico-chan? You've been like this for a good while now."

Nico narrowed her eyes.

"What are you talking about? This is how I normally am."

"No, you see, you've been kinda moody lately!"

"_Me?" _Nico inquired her, just to make sure that she was talking about her. "Moody? But I'm always like this, believe it or not…"

"No, no, Nico-chan! That's where you're wrong. Y'see, you're much nicer when you're normal and you talk to me a lot during work!"

Nico could only scowl at the second year. Even though she had been denying it for so long, it was certain; she was definitely affected by what happened during the festival night. She liked to believe that _no _she wasn't affected, that she was a mentally strong person who wouldn't let a few petty words get in the way of what she wanted, but apparently this wasn't the case in this situation. It had really broken something inside of Nico, and it was the cause of the decline in her normally high spirits and motivation.

She recalled something of her earlier childhood, something related to her siblings. What was the phrase that her mother had told her every time someone said something mean to her?

_"__Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me,"_ she remembered her mother saying that to her when she was a little child.

She laughed bitterly at those nostalgic words that were archived in the depths of her mind. Funny how she ended but getting hurt over what someone said to her recently.

She didn't have enough time to ponder deeper into her thoughts, as she had finished cleaning the coffee mugs. Her eyes made their way to the clock hung on the wall and she noticed it was time to go home as another one of her long shifts ended. Thankfully. She didn't want to do anything for a while, a very long while.

A cloudy gray sky yet again welcomed her presence by producing a loud rumble and then, rain. Great. As if her day wasn't getting any worse. There had to be rain as she walked to the nearby bus stop. She continued her walk whilst holding an umbrella over her head.

With the bone-chilling wind that blew in her face, she tried her best to cup her hands in front of her face to warm herself up, only for it to work temporarily. Now practically shivering, she was so grateful for the bus that happened to be arriving a few minutes earlier. She gladly got herself onto the bus and took a seat nearest to the back.

The bus' tires had screeched to a halt, signifying for Nico to get off. She hopped off as she prepared to retrieve her key from inside her bag. Although her fingers were slightly numbed from the cold, she managed to find the key in no time. With the key now in hand, she took her time walking up the staircase, her footsteps reverberated back with every step she took.

She felt a familiar stinging in her eyes as she pouted; the telltale signs of crying. She prided herself on looking like a mature and responsible adult, making her resist crying until she at least made it to her apartment door.

She turned around the corner whilst pushing back a few loose strands that were in front of her face. Looking at her apartment door, she noticed there was a girl that was leaning beside it. _Crimson hair… lavender eyes… oh no. _Before she could stop herself, she let out an audible gasp that alerted Maki of her presence.

"N-Nico-chan! Wait right there!"

_Nope._ She certainly didn't want to see her out of all the possible days, especially today. She realized that a few tears had spilled out and she quickly wiped them with the sleeves of her coat, praying that the redhead wouldn't notice.

"Nico-chan… a-are you crying?"

"No!"

Nico decided to walk away and began her descent down the stairs. There was no way that she wanted to be seen crying in front of Maki. She had no idea where she would go, but she just needed to get away from her. Swiftly leaving the complex entrance, she was beginning to get soaked from the oncoming rain. She just _had_ to drop her umbrella when she saw Maki.

Behind her, she could hear footsteps that were much louder than hers. This only made her want to walk away faster from the source, because she knew who it was and she knew that she couldn't face her today. It just wasn't a good day. She had to admit, none of these previous days were what someone could consider 'good'.

"What are you crying about?"

"Why does it concern you?"

"Nico-chan, I just want to talk… Why have you been avoiding me for so long? Why aren't you talking to me anymore?" Maki asked as she hugged herself.

Nico stopped in her tracks as she stood outside the apartment complex. She no longer cared about the raindrops that landed onto her skin, the cool liquid running down the tips of her hair.

"Please. Just… just tell me what's going on. What is your problem with me?" the redhead impatiently asked.

"_My _problem with _you_?" Nico repeated hotly after the younger girl's question. She walked back in order to face Maki, practically stomping on the ground with every step she took forward.

"My problem with you is that I _love you,_ okay!" she cried out in frustration. Before she knew it, Nico grabbed her by the collar angrily with her own two fists.

"W-Wha–" Maki stuttered as a blush invaded her entire face, her sentence only to be silenced by a pair of lips.

Nico averted her gaze, her temper still burning hot, but not as hot as Maki's face. "I love you… okay!"

Maki brushed her fingertips over her mouth as she looked at Nico in shock.

"You… love me?"

"Do I have to repeat it again?" she retorted back, beginning to feel irritated. She could feel it now, she could feel the rejection coming and washing over her with disappointment.

What she didn't expect was the younger girl in front of her to begin laughing. Now holding onto the sides of her stomach, Maki bent down slightly.

"Why are you laughing!" Nico said with annoyance growing in her voice.

After a few moments, she finally maintained her composure and stood straight again.

"It's funny," Maki said. "I-It's funny because I like you too…"

Nico's eyes widened in surprise. She couldn't believe what she heard from the girl that stood in front of her. The _very_ same girl that Nico had wanted to be with, _longed_ to be with. This couldn't be some sort of sick dream, would it?

"…S-Say it again," Nico said, shocked.

"N-No! That's embarrassing," the younger girl stated as she fiddled the strands of her hair nervously.

"Say it again, please."

Ruby eyes met lavender when Nico looked from the ground to Maki. She could see how nervous she actually was, with one of her hands awkwardly covering her flushed cheeks and the other doing her typical habit with her hair.

"I… I l-like you…"

Nico had drifted towards Maki, closing the small gap between them. Again, she leaned against her, breath tickling her skin as she closed her eyes. Nico had thought about doing this for so long; kissing the girl that she was so fond of. She thought that something like this would ever happen, only in the occasional dreams that she had revolving around the redhead.

When they had parted, Nico had actually wished that it would last a bit longer.

The two stood awkwardly now.

"U-Um!" they had both called out in unison.

"Y-You go first," Nico hastily said.

"Okay…" Maki exhaled shakily. "I want you… t-to go out with me."

No reply.

"Nico-chan?"

"No fair! I wanted to ask you out first!"

Maki looked surprised as she couldn't figure out what to say. A few seconds later, they both ended up laughing, even with their hearts thumping so hardly against their chests.

"…S-So that's a yes," Maki tried her best to lock eye contact, but found it difficult. Instead, she resorted to staring at the strand of hair that stuck up above Nico's forehead. "…Right?"

"Yes."

They walked back to her apartment. Although they were wet from the rain, they kept each other warm from the heat that emanated from their interlocked hands.

* * *

**A/N: I hoped you liked this! I had planned the confession ever since the beginning of this fanfic. Thank you for reading this. Does this mean it's the end of the fanfic now that they're together? Nope! There's plenty more to come... Or so I think, anyways. I had tried to upload this quicker, I had hoped to update 6 days after my last, but alas, school. I'm having some trouble writing and balancing that with schoolwork. Sorry about that. **

**I'll see you in my next update then, goodbye!**


	11. Spring Coloured

Nico felt like everything passed very quickly, spring break had arrived already. She was more than joyful that they had begun to date. One thing she expected never came true, though. Just a simple display of public affection. She didn't care what it was, she just wanted something, anything from her.

Nico had tried so many times in the past two weeks to initiate something of the sort, like holding hands. What she got in return was an embarrassed Maki who would ask her to stop "bothering her". Even in the indoors of Maki's home, Nico found it hard to get close to her new girlfriend and actually do… _couple-y things_. Actually, what _do_ couples even do?

And now, here she was, sitting in Maki's living room while she prepared for the trip out. Over the two weeks, Nico noticed that she would find herself going over to Maki's house for no apparent reason whatsoever, she figured she just wanted some company, although that was quite difficult to admit to the younger girl whose presence she sought out for. But every time she had excused herself before entering the redhead's house, Maki didn't seem to mind at all. She supposed that was the only real trace of affection she really showed during the past two weeks.

Surprisingly, Nico had actually packed everything up the day beforehand. Normally, all the people that knew Nico would assume that she would get ready at the very last minute, and when they say last minute, they really mean it. Maybe it was the fact that it would be the first time she had a sleepover since forever, or maybe it was the fact that she would be sleeping at one of Maki's many villas scattered all across the country. She honestly didn't know what to expect, but silently hoped that she would be able to at least hold her hand or something, for heaven's sake. Just anything that assured her that Maki was still… interested in her and wasn't just going out for her due to a feeling of pity toward her.

At the beginning when Maki had invited her on a two day trip to one of her huge houses in some sort of seaside town, Nico was more than excited to accept and go with her. What she didn't know was that the younger girl had invited her other two friends, Hanayo and Rin, who in turn… invited Honoka. Knowing Honoka, the second year girl also dragged along her two best friends. Then, somehow, Nozomi managed to hear of this and gladly invited herself along with a familiar Russian blonde. So in the end, all nine of the girls were going to go for a massive sleepover, basically.

Nico flicked channels on the television to and fro, none of them catching her eye or attention at all. She had been like this for a while, Maki was certainly taking a long time. Elbow upright, with her hand palming her the side of her face, she was sure that there would be a faint red mark when she removed it from her cheek, seeing that she had probably been spacing out on the armchair for such a long duration.

She could only hear feeble sounds of cluttering and closets being shut in a room nearby, the only sign that Maki was still in the process of packing up whatever she needed. Nico didn't understand why, _why _did the redhead take such a long time in packing up? It was only going to be a two to three day stay at the house, and wouldn't she have some spare clothes there? Things like this puzzled Nico. She decided not to think more about it as she alleviated her tiredness with a stretched yawn.

"Maki-chan?" the raven haired girl called out, boredom clear as day in her tone. "Hurry up… I'm going to fall asleep, like, right now if you don't hurry up."

"Just give me a minute!"

"You said that last time, three minutes ago! We're gonna miss our train if you don't hurry up."

"Okay, okay. Just… go watch something while I'm readying up."

She let out a sigh, giving up her need to be punctual.

The door behind her creaked slightly, revealing her girlfriend. Nico turned to her side and saw Maki. She tried her best to resist the blushing that appeared on her face, but to no avail. She was adorable. Wearing a casual coat that was a warm pink and a cream colored dress patterned with cherry blossoms under it was a fidgeting Maki who was playing with the hems of her dress.

Nico could only cough to stop herself from staring and to lighten the atmosphere, her cheeks now flushed scarlet.

"Y-You look nice, I guess."

"T-Thank you."

"Not as nice as _me,_ though, of course. No-one can be as beautiful as Nico-ni!"

"I take back what I said before," Maki hit Nico in the arm. "G-Geez, Nico-chan."

"Were you happy that I said you looked nice?"

"S-Shut up!"

"So you were!"

Without anything else to say, the two wordlessly brought their luggage with them as they walked out of the house and waited quietly, both of them still blushing.

* * *

The couple had arrived, albeit a few minutes late. Maki had one of her servants drive her to the train station where they would meet the other girls for their train journey. When they had stepped out, she noticed that the train station was on the other side of the road… _Great job,_ she thought to herself.

Nico, deciding to be a decent girlfriend, decided to get out of the vehicle before Maki did to carry the luggage out of the boot before anyone else could. With little strength, she opened the car boot with Maki looking a bit confused at her sudden action. Lifting hers out, she put it on the sidewalk. Now for Maki's. Her suitcase was slightly larger than hers, and she began wondering what she put into it and why she would even need to have such a large suitcase in the first place.

She put a hand on the handle as she held it with her free hand. She strained to pick it up and let out a repressed grunt. Exactly just _what_ did Maki have in her luggage that made it so much heavier?

She was about to stumble back and let go of the suitcase until her back hit something soft. The weight was suddenly lifted from her hands and she felt a sense of relief wash over her. Looking behind her, she noticed the redhead holding her own case.

"Idiot."

"H-Hey! You didn't need to help me, I was managing just fine with that!"

"It didn't seem like it," Maki replied nonchalantly, to which Nico huffed out a unpleased puff of air.

The two of them waved the younger girl's servant off, the car departing in a fast pace not too soon after that. Across from the road was the entrance to the train station, Nico felt a giddiness rise up in her chest.

"Let's go," Nico said, awkwardly moving around to clutch Maki's hand.

"…T-This is embarrassing…"

"We're going out so it's fine, right?"

"R-Right…"

Maki became quiet after that and hid the blush in her face well, seeing that she was walking slightly behind Nico.

Holding hands… being a couple…

That had reminded Nico of something Maki had told her, about a week after dating.

_"…__I want you to keep this relationship a secret," she remembered Maki saying, her lavender eyes looking at the side of the room. Curiosity peaked in Nico, and she had decided to find an answer._

_"__Why? Are you… are you _ashamed _of dating me?" Nico asked, voice full of concern and hesitation when she added the second question in. It had only been a week, and Nico had hoped that this relationship would last more than just that, she had been in high hopes hoping that this would last much, much longer than just a week._

_She twirled the ends of her crimson strands, seemingly… reluctant to speak? She knitted her eyebrows slightly, as she struggled to say something to Nico._

_"__I just… I'm not ready to tell anyone yet. And…" she trailed off in a soft voice._

_Nico noticed how she had failed to finish her sentence and how uncomfortable she was. Instead of pushing further for more answers, she decided to let her be for now. Gently placing her hands on the redhead's shoulder, she gave a reassuring smile at her. _

_"__I understand. It's fine if you don't want to talk about this."_

* * *

_Maki, not expecting Nico to have such a mature side, blushed even harder, as her heart began quickening in an even faster pulse. _

_"…"_

_She kept quiet, knowing that what would come out of her mouth would be a bunch of jumbled up sentences, now that she was in a flustered state. But in her mind, she thought how grateful she was for meeting someone like Nico, grateful for having able to spend so much time with her._

_She didn't say it out loud, but she said it clearly in her conscience._

_'__Thank you.'_

* * *

Nico stepped onto the sidewalk and was now facing the entrance of the overly large train station. She checked her watch in a hurry to check the time, hoping that they weren't too late.

"We're a few minutes late," Nico told Maki. "But… we're still the first ones here... Ugh, they're all late."

It had been too quiet, until a pattering of footsteps echoed in the station.

"Hey, nya!" an energetic ginger haired girl called out as she dashed to the two idly standing in the station. Behind her was Hanayo, who was trying her best to match her best friend's pace, but failing, seeing that she was lagging behind.

Honoka's entrance was also similar to Rin's, in the way that they had both practically ran towards the group. The last four that came and greeted the group were Kotori, Umi, Nozomi and Eli, who all –like a real, _mature_, adult – walked in a mannerly fashion.

When Nico had lifted one of her hands up to wave them over, she had realized something. She was still holding onto _Maki's hand_. Woops. She immediately let go, hopefully before anyone noticed or pointed out what they were doing beforehand. A familiar warmth flooded her cheeks.

"Good morning," Nozomi greeted, to which everyone politely greeted with some kind of response of their own. In the corner of her eye, Nico could see Nozomi giving her a sly smile. Darn, she probably saw.

"Everyone's all here, right?" Kotori had asked, as Honoka swiftly counted the group's number with her fingers.

"Yup! That's everyone." Honoka said, brimming with excitement for their trip.

Eli nodded in approval as she smiled. "Khorosho! All right, I suppose we can go in a few minutes time, everyone."

Umi parted a few stray strands to the side of her face whilst walking over to Maki. "Thank you for letting everyone stay over at one of your villas."

Not expecting that, Maki had tensed up slightly, not knowing what to say. She tried to brush off her awkwardness by acting coolly as she fiddled with her hair.

"I-It's no problem, really."

Umi, being the polite person as she was, bowed slightly, which only embarrassed the younger girl even more.

"T-That's fine, you don't need to do that!"

Umi was about to say more, but refrained as she saw a familiar looking brunette drag her to somewhere.

Nico had decided to sneak up behind her and leaned against the taller redhead, her hands pressed onto her back.

"Maki-chan is so cute when she's embarrassed, aw~" Nico whispered into her ear.

"S-Stop that!"

All of the girls found a spot to sit and relaxed. Everyone had begun to talk whilst waiting for the train, most of them discussing what would they do as soon as they had arrived at their destination.

"Hey, hey. We should totally go to the beach first!" Honoka announced as she pumped her hands into the air with enthusiasm.

"I agree, nya!" the younger cat-like girl agreed, much to the dismay of Umi who wore a cross look on her face.

"No, not until you finish your assignments. Do I have to remind you that it's due in _three days' _time?"

The brunette tried to wave off the subject with a reassuring smile. "That's fine, that's fine. I'll do it as soon as I get home," she said in a carefree tone that was typical of her.

"Oh really, now? I doubt you would even remember at the end of this trip," the bluenette began foraging around in her suitcase to reveal a single sheet of paper. "…Which is why I brought a list of things you have to do before we return home."

"Don't ruin the fun, c'mon. Plus, we haven't been on a trip like this since high school!" she pouted at the end of her sentence.

The two continued their little argument, with Honoka asking Kotori to back her up every so often. It was something Nico commonly saw when the three best friends were together.

The train arrived in no less than five minutes, and the girls entered it. They had all put away their belongings, while some of them sat down, adjusting themselves comfortably into the seats. The girls were sitting near each other as they all occupied two rows of seats. Nico was just about to sit beside Nozomi until she heard a familiar voice call her name.

She turned her head around to see a fidgeting Maki.

"S-Sit beside me," Maki pointed to the seat beside her.

Nico tilted her head.

"I-I mean! Since that seat is a window seat I figured you might want to sit there. I-It's your first time going on a train right?"

She didn't say anything as she went into the inside of the two seats, a smile gracing her face.

The twin-tailed girl couldn't believe that small detail that she had told Maki a long time ago during one of their 'dates'. Well, Nico considered it a date, but it wasn't really. Nico for the umpteenth time, invited herself over to Maki's house and just… stayed there for a long while. They had somehow began talking about traveling and Nico had remembered briefly saying she had never rode on a train before. She felt pleased, seeing that the redhead still remembered.

"You sure it's not because you want Nico-chi to sit beside you?" Nozomi suddenly interjected the two, causing to dissipate their previous atmosphere.

When the two had looked around, they had both a red hue dyed onto their face. It had gotten even redder when she saw that Nozomi had recorded the entire ordeal on her camera. The violet haired girl stuck her tongue out.

"T-Turn that off!" the two said, in almost perfect sync.

Soon after that, it became quiet again as most of the girls dozed off. After all, it would take at least three hours for them to get there and arrive at their destination. She looked to the side and found that the redhead was silently reading a novel, something saw Maki normally doing when she was over at her house. She then rested her head onto the seat. Nico felt herself getting drowsy as her eyes refused to constantly stay open.

She felt her eyelids getting heavier… and decided to give in to the temptation that was sleep. The last things she noticed was a pleasant hand slipping into hers and a warm smile from Maki.

* * *

**A/N: Hmmmm... So I've noticed how I've been failing to update every Monday/Sunday... I'm sorry about that! With the beginning of the new school term, I don't have as much time as I normally had during the summer vacation. Add a homubot absolutely confused with their new subjects at school, and you get delays in updates. If you haven't been on my profile page (that barely has anything on it so it's not really worth clicking into), you might not know that I'm now going to start updating _around_ a week after the last. So that means I might not update exactly a week after the last, or it may mean I might update a tiny bit early depending how busy I am. Now, I want to thank you so much for reading this fanfiction. I hope you enjoyed this!**

**I'll see you in my next update, and I hope you also have a great day/night, whatever time it is right now!**

**Edit: Oh yes, I forgot to thank you guys for giving me over 100 reviews! Wow... that's just... amazing. Thank you for following, reviewing and favoriting this story, it means a lot.**


	12. The Sky's The Limit

"And now begins our expedition to the beach!" a bikini clad Honoka declared to the group, both of her arms holding onto several floats. The first years, bar one redhead, nodded to her words, excitement clearly shown on their faces.

"I, Private Rin will be assisting you in that, nya~" the youngest first year added, chasing after Honoka who was already dashing toward the beach's cool water. The hesitant of the three was Hanayo, who seemed to be swept along the rush by Rin. Once out of sight, she let out her typical saying.

"S-Someone help me!"

Nico looked at how childish the three were and scoffed. As _if_ she would react like _that._ No way. Although she thought that to herself, she found herself drawn to the sea water, the tide swashing in, as if invitingly. Maybe it would be okay for her to join them…

Her eyes darted back to the others.

"L-Look at them! They're all like children... I mean who even runs towards the beach at that a-age?"

Eli looked at her weirdly.

"Huh? What's wrong with that? I think it's kind of adorable."

"Nico-chi just wants to join them, I know it," Nozomi interjected as she caught up with the rest of the group.

"I– I don't, I'm not like them!"

"Is that so~" Nozomi said with a smug smile.

The violet haired girl leaned in close to her ear, "I know you've been looking over at them for the past five minutes." She proceeded to back away, still wearing her smug smile.

Nico, being one of the most stubborn people that Nozomi had ever gotten the pleasure to know, continued to deny her claims. She averted her eyes as she gave a badly formed smile.

"I don't know what you mean," she said, trying to sound confident.

She had stopped trying to defend herself when she heard footsteps behind her. With the most nonchalant face ever, Maki gazed at the group, acknowledging them, and then walked passed them to sit on a chair that was under the shadow of a parasol. She then took out her novel and began reading silently.

Nico had to admit –only ever to herself, though – she was somewhat disappointed that her girlfriend was wearing a light sundress instead of showing off her body in a swimsuit. Another thing she would never admit to anyone was her excitement in going to the beach was all because she wanted to see Maki wearing a bikini. Alas, fate was cruel to her and Maki chose to wear her sundress.

At the far end corner, she could see Honoka and the two other first years making her way to the group, with Honoka's eyes lighting up with ambition.

"As the captain, I order you all to partake in the water fight!"

Umi deadpanned. "…Who made you the captain?"

It took Honoka a few seconds to come up with a plausible answer as she placed her finger under her lower lip. "Mmm… myself!"

The self-proclaimed captain then commanded her subordinates to push the others into the water, most of them verbally and physically protesting along the way, and some even laughing. Nico found herself actually enjoying this and decided to play with them for now.

"Hey, hey, why don't you join us Maki-chan?" came Honoka from behind her. The twin tailed girl then whipped her head back to see what was going on.

_Pffh, as if they could get Maki-chan to join, she's the most stubborn person I've ever seen, _the raven haired girl thought as she witnessed what was happening. How ironic that was.

Maki had only looked up from her novel and met her eyes with the older brunette after a few beats. Her face was indifferent. She looked back down to her book in hand.

"I'm not interested, no thanks."

Nico stood corrected and felt superior that she knew Maki so well.

"Maki-chan, don't ruin the fun, nya!" Rin said, appearing out of no-where.

The redhead kept quiet, as if contemplating her choices.

"…Fine then," was her final answer. She arose from her chair and lay the book down gently onto the seat.

_What_.

Nico was at disbelief, she actually was not expecting for that to happen. She had thought the younger girl would shoot them down, and then the other girls would just give up and let her be. But no, seeing that it was Honoka, she pretty much got what she wanted with her way of words and persuasion of a little kid.

As Maki was led to the water by Hanayo, Honoka and Rin give each other a high five, whilst yelling "Success!" to each other.

Nico began heading out towards the other girls in the water fight (or as _Captain_ Honoka said, it was a _war_), intent on coming out on top. She only stopped when she heard a scream that came from her girlfriend behind her. She felt panic and whipped her head back to see what was wrong.

In Rin's hand was a plastic gun that was designed with all sorts of different colours. Supposedly a water gun, Nico figured that she sprayed the redhead from behind.

"R-Rin!" the victim cried out, her back freezing from coming in contact with cold water.

"It _is_ a water fight, Maki-chan!" was the only thing she could say back to her friend, a coy smile etched onto her face.

"That's it," Maki said, feeling a sort of competitiveness. She reached down to the hems on either side of her dress. Then she began pulling it up over her head, revealing a sleek white and that was when Nico's eyes bulged out and remained glued to what her girlfriend was doing right now.

_Wow,_ was all she could say right now as she felt a dark blush flush her cheeks.

"I'm going to get you!" Maki shouted out, perhaps taking the game a bit too seriously.

Maki had only stopped in her tracks when she noticed the twin haired girl staring for too long.

"…W-What," Maki asked.

"N-Nothing! I thought there was something–"

Before she could end her sentence, she was met with a face full of cold liquid. She then yelled.

"C-C-Cold!" she said as she looked around to see who sprayed her.

"Okay, whoever did that is so immature an–"

A wave of water came over her again and she felt her eyebrows beginning to crease. A devious smile appeared on her face and she prepared to get whoever it was, girlfriend or not. Rolling up imaginary sleeves, she decided to announce something to everyone.

"All right then, I see how it is. It's time to get serious!"

* * *

It was roughly late afternoon, seeing that the sun radiated a beautiful auburn glow, and was about to set soon enough. The water fight itself had lasted a good long hour. After that, the girl partook in a series of beach games, ranging from volleyball to smashing a watermelon open. All of those activities resulted in all of the girls finding their energy dissipating by the second. There could only be one thing that could relieve them of their exhaustion, and that was…

"Food!" a hungry looking Honoka said, as she put her two hands onto her stomach. "Hey when's the food ready? I'm so hungry…"

"There's no point in complaining, Honoka, that won't make the food cook faster. It'll take just a few more minutes," the bluenette of the group chastised her best friend.

"But~"

"You ought to have some patience, Honoka. Here," Eli said as she gave the younger girl a cold can of soda. "Maybe this'll help your hunger for now?"

"Thanks Eli-chan!" Honoka took it, offering a smile.

It was a barbeque, to be precise. The girls had all agreed on having a barbeque on a part of the beach that was relatively close to Maki's home for convenience. Nico had saw how the girls managed the cooking clumsily, and decided to step in, her restrained attempts in ignoring them futile.

Soon enough, the food was all cooked and everyone happily served themselves the food on their plates. They all stood near the barbeque, eating contently.

"This is so good, nya!" the cat-like girl commented as she took a bite of chicken.

The twin-tailed girl resisted smiling from her compliment. "O-Of course it is, I'm the best cook there is!"

She tried to peek at her girlfriend who was eating and waited for a response.

A few minutes had passed and all she had gotten from her was nothing. Her eyes were still focused on the food before her, and she was eating silently. Nico could only assume that she liked it and was satisfied.

It didn't take too long for all of the girls to wolf down the food, since they were just so hungry. They now strolled around the place, chatting alongside each other.

Nico hadn't noticed at the beginning, but now she did. Where was Maki? Maybe she went off somewhere? Since she felt a bit bored now that there wasn't much to do, she decided to try and find the redhead. She began walking in the direction where the beach stretched to.

…Maybe if the beach weren't so big, she would have probably found her by now. She had realized something; what is up with rich people and having big places?

She had found herself with enough time to reflect upon their relationship, now that she was alone. She was truly happy they were going out, but she just felt like there was something missing. Sometimes Nico felt that maybe –just maybe– Maki didn't like her as much as she thought she did. Nico began to speak in her conscience. _I mean, she's never the one to start something and it's always me. Every. Time. _She breathed out a sigh, not quite angry, but not quite happy.

She spotted a familiar looking girl with scarlet hair and was certain that it was her girlfriend. She noticed how she had huddled up and hugged her knees, keeping to herself. There was also a slight hint of sorrow that appeared in her eyes. Nico silently walked towards her and stood beside her, making the younger girl tilt her head to look at her. She then looked back to the distant waves, and so did Nico.

"Hey," Maki greeted.

"Hey."

The two continued looking out to the sea, its waves captivating them with the coral orange that reflected the water. The twin-tailed girl found herself gazing up at the sky sans the sun the was currently setting near the mountainside.

"Did you know, you remind me of the sky?"

"The sky? Why?" the redhead tilted her head in curiosity.

"Because you're so pretty."

The younger girl kept her silence and felt a fuzzy warmth in her heart. "What's with you all of a sudden, th-that's embarrassing…"

"You're also something that I thought I could never have. Like the sky, I thought I could never reach you, no matter how hard I tried. But here I am, with you," Nico gave a genuine smile. She huddled beside Maki and reached for her slender hand, her heart secretly working up a rapid pulse.

"So I'm not really like the sky then, seeing that you can't reach the sky." Maki averted her eyes to somewhere else other than Nico. She made it seem like she had a cool exterior, and Nico would have believed her, if it weren't for the blush that crept to her face.

Nico began leaning in, her breaths brushed off the redhead's face and neck, a new and foreign sensation for Maki, but nonetheless, she liked it. The raven haired girl felt her tensing up and stopped.

"Hey," she squeezed her hand a tad bit. "Look over here."

"B-But…" she hesitantly said, her cool and mature exterior shattering by the second. Nico waited a mere few seconds, and what she got was a jittery looking Maki trying her best to look at her.

Nico proceeded to lean towards her. Closing her eyes, she knew how close she was from the heat that radiated from her girlfriend's face. A little further and she woul-

"Guys! We're getting ready for bed!"

A distant and familiar voice of Honoka broke the atmosphere, making the two jolt up. Nico whipped her head toward the source of the voice and she saw that Honoka was currently waving madly at the entrance of the house.

"O-Okay! We'll be there!" Nico shouted, embarrassment making her voice uneven.

Nico looked back to her girlfriend, and saw how scarlet she had become.

"L-Let's go, come on," Maki said, trying to regain her composure.

Nico let out a giggle.

"You're so cute when you're embarrassed~"

"S-Stop that!"

"And you're still holding onto my hand."

She let go of her hand.

When the two entered the house they were welcomed by the rest of the group who were casually lounging around the living room and kitchen room.

"I didn't know you had so many snacks in your kitchen, Maki-chan!" came a voice from the kitchen, cheery as always.

"Honoka, _no_. You can't eat before we go to sleep," Umi said, plastic crinkled, suggesting that the bluenette took away the fore mentioned snacks.

"But…!"

"No buts, Honoka-chan, it's bad for you," Kotori's voice interjected.

Nico and Maki sat onto one of the sofas that were in the living room and relaxed. Well, they tried to, anyways, seeing that in the previous happenings they almost _kissed _and Nico thought their relationship was actually progressing.

"Speaking of beds, where are we going to sleep tonight?" Hanayo asked whilst scrolling on her phone.

"Well…" Maki folded her arms and began thinking. "There're only four rooms that you're able to sleep in, while the other rooms are used for storage and such. So I guess… we have to share a room between two?"

"Wait no, no, Rin has an even better idea!" the ginger haired girl jumped in, excitement brimming in her voice. "How about all of us… sleep in one big room with futons!"

"…We're not in high school, Rin," Maki said. "Besides, there aren't enough futons right now. If I had known there were so many people coming over for this little trip, I would've prepared and asked some of the maids to clean out the other rooms."

"Okay then, nya."

"…So?" Nozomi said. "How are we going to divide the rooms? Do a draw?"

"That's really unnecessary, Nozomi," the blonde said, stretching her arms in the air.

"Oh? I bet you're saying that because you want to share one with me, Eli-chi."

"W-What, n-no!" Eli said quickly.

"Okay, but really, how are we going to divide the rooms?" Nico said, returning back to the topic.

"Rin wants to share a room with Kayo-chin!" the first year said as she linked arms with Hanayo.

Maki nodded. "That's fine."

"I'll share one with Kotori, then," Umi said, emerging from the kitchen with the other two second years behind her.

"Well, if that's how it is, I'll share one with Eli-chi."

"And that leaves… Maki, Nico and Honoka…" Eli said, looking over at the two bar Honoka.

"I-I don't see a problem in sharing a room with Nico-chan…" the redhead said whilst twirling her hair.

"We never suggested you to?" the blonde said, confused.

"A-Ah! W-What I mean is that… t-that I wouldn't mind if I shared with Nico-chan…" Maki looked away.

"G-Guys…" Honoka cried out. "What about me?"

"If you want, I could get you a futon," Maki offered.

"Oh yeah! Thank you Maki-chan!"

"Now that that's settled… how about we play some games before bedtime?" Nozomi suggested wearing a suspicious smile.

"…Games?" the girls all asked.

* * *

It was a long night. A long night of ghost tales and silly games. Everyone was starting to become slightly tired, the telltales signs shown on their faces.

"Okay…" Rin said, thinking. "Rin dares Nico-chan to kiss Maki-chan!"

"Wh-What!" Nico was in the midst of drinking a beverage and almost choked. "I'm not doing that… I-I wouldn't do that…" she looked over to take a glance at Maki, who stared back at her.

_Keep our relationship a secret_.

"I-I mean, only people who _go out_ do things like _that_!"

"Really? You're not going to do it?" Rin asked. "It's just a simple dare."

"Still not doing it, now I choose a person for truth or dare," Nico said nonchalantly.

_Swiftly avoided,_ Nico thought to herself happily.

"Then Rin guesses you're just a coward then…" the first year smiled teasingly.

_Coward? Did she just call me a coward?_

Without a thought she decided to speak back. "Hey, I'm not a coward!"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah."

"If you're not a coward, then kiss Maki-chan, nya!"

"I-I'll do it!"

Nico began shuffling closer to her girlfriend who was currently frozen up.

"Maki-chan stop moving!"

"N-Nico-chan, w-wait…"

Then and there, Nico planted her lips onto Maki's, some of the girls gasped whilst watching as –what they thought– the unexpected happened. Nico whipped her head back to look at Rin whose mouth was widened with surprise. She smiled smugly.

"See? I'm not a coward!"

"Rin was just kidding… nya…"

_Oh._

Nico looked back to her girlfriend who brought a pillow up to hide her face.

_Oh no._

"N-Nico-chan, don't do that when we're in front of so m-many people, you idiot."

"Y-Y-You guys do these kinds of things when you're alone?" Umi asked, her face equally as flushed as the redhead.

There came a collective "Eh?!" from the girls as they didn't get a response from either of them, confirming their suspicions.

"You're… going out with each other?!"

"We kind of… wanted to k-keep it a secret, but I guess there's no point hiding it from you all…" Nico explained, seeing that her girlfriend was still covering herself with a pillow.

"Congrats, Nico-chi, I knew you could do it." Nozomi said, smiling. "Maki-chan, please take care of Nico-chi for me."

"W-What are you saying!" Nico said loudly, feeling embarrassed.

"I think it's time for us to go to sleep, some of us still need to process what just happened," Nozomi said, ending the teasing (for now).

"I-I think so too…" Umi said, her face still slightly flushed.

All of the girls now went upstairs into their respective rooms. Now alone with just the redhead, Nico felt a tinge of awkwardness loom over the air.

"W-Where's our room…"

"Just here," Maki said and ended on that note.

She opened the door, revealing a spacious looking room with neatly placed furniture. As expected of Maki and her wealth, this room was just as big as the last one she was sleeping at. The younger girl walked past her and laid down onto a side of the bed.

"I'm going to sleep early, so do whatever you want."

Nico looked around the room, and found that there was nothing she could really do. She supposed that going to bed would be a good idea. She awkwardly stood over the bed, it would have been a deadly silence if it weren't for her heart beating loudly. She would have happily entered if it weren't for the redhead on the other side of the bed. Her hearted pounded in her chest as she slipped into the bed beside her girlfriend.

"Good n-night…"

"Good night."

* * *

**A/N: H-Hello... Author back from the grave... I had a surprise attack of tests and essays in school so I had no time at all to do this... Sorry, Orz. But asides from that, I hope you enjoyed this, it's similar to chapter 9 in the sense that theyre longer than the normal chapters. Again, I'm going to annoy you guys by saying this. Thank you! I realized that this is the most followed story on here, this fanfic is so not worthy! There are over 9000 (pun unintended) views for this fanfic as well, wow!**

**Also a reply to 'Please': Aaaaaah I'm sorry you don't like 'mindless fluff', but I'll give you something that may keep your hopes up: *whispers* there will be conflict in future chapters.**

**And now, I'll leave you with this; I'll see you in my next update, goodbye!**


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